The Royal Journey
by InuyashasGrl26
Summary: Sequel to Far Far Away; The king passes away and now Inuyasha is to be the new king. However he wants someone else to fill that position. The only problem is that only other relative of the family is Kagome's younger brother, Sota. But is he up for the job?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Deep within the forest a noise of a horse's hooves echo through the area. Looking down to see Koga on one. "Hurry my noble steed, we must rescue the princess. She's been trapped in a tower. Mark my words we will save her." He shouts out into the distance. As the view back ups to see more, it turns out that behind is a picture of forest that is being rolled over and over. The backstage has a few workers to make the scene more realistic. The one worker claps two coconut shells to make the hooves moving. The other working shoots a sparks to make reflect it off a mirror to make it more like lightning.

Koga pretends to halt for he has arrived at the tower. "We're finally here." He smirks and looks up to the open window high above. "Oh my prince has come to save me." The actress pops off of the window. She has her red hair in pigtails with an iris in it her eyes are that of emerald green. "Don't worry, Princess Ayame, I'm here to rescue you from the dragon. And once we do, we will become King and Queen of this kingdom." Koga speaks proudly as he pulls out a sword. He is about to 'climb the tower, but the tower leans forward and lands on top of Koga. "Koga." Ayame cries as she tries to get him out of the tower sculpture. Koga looks up to see Ayame with a worried expression. He managed to get out. "I'm fine. I just feel humiliated doing this dinner theatre." He replies and dusted himself.

He looks at Ayame with a sorrow look. "What's wrong?" He asks her. Ayame's eyes made him look in the direction. He turns to see the customers of the restaurant who are to watch him, were laughing at him. Knowing when enough is enough, He grabs hold of Ayame's hand head to the way back of the stage and goes into their dressing room. After closing the door, Koga immediately sits on the sofa. "What are we going to do Ayame?" He asks. Ayame sighs, "I don't know. I just wished this didn't happened to us." She answers as she sits by him.

Koga shows his distraught face into his own reflection in the mirror on the other side of the room. One corner has a picture of his mother, Fairy God Mother Kikyo with a sentence, "Never give up on your dreams."

After his mother has been defeated by Kagome's father, Hige. He went into hiding. Feeling low and shamed for the lost of his mother, he didn't want the public to make fun of him. While hiding, he met Ayame. She's a wolf demon just like him but from a different wolf tribe. According to her tribe, that she needs to find a male wolf demon to return with her to take over the head of the tribe. Koga is persuaded at first but he has a deep grudge against Kagome's family. Ayame promised to help him out to get his revenge despite of the task she was assigned to.

Recently they tried doing dinner theatre but that immediately ended in failure. So they're running low on money in order to survive. "What if I were to be Kagome's friend." Ayame breaks the silence. Koga quickly looks up to her. "What do you mean?" He asks her in shock.

Ayame is more like the smart one in the group. "What I'm trying to say here is that I should be Kagome's friend…" She then whispers into Koga's ear. Only hearing what her idea is, Koga's lips grins. "Genius. Pure Genius. Let's just hope it works." Koga agrees and goes to a window. In the view is the castle. "Mark my words, Higurashi Family, I will take over your kingdom." He grins even more.

Koga opens up the window of the room to let a nice warm breeze to have his high ponytail to dance along the wind. All of a sudden a huge piece of a newspaper of the kingdom slams onto his face. Ayame runs to him, "You okay?" She asks him softly. Koga yanks the newspaper page off his face and glares at what's on it. Ayame looks over the shoulder to see as well. She copies his expression. "Rest assured, Koga. I will have them fall down in shame, worst shame than we were." She walks out the room. Koga looks down to see Kagome and Inuyasha in front of the palace to take over the king's position while he's bed resting. "You better keep your word Ayame.

The next morning, the sunlight beams into a royal's bedroom. Kagome snuggles into her husband's embrace, feeling safe and content. As she tries to unclasps the hands around her waist, the hands reinforced themselves to make it impossible for her to do it. "Morning, Kagome." The voice whispers into her ear. Kagome giggles in responds as she turns to the other side of her body to make herself looking straight into her husband's eyes. "Good morning, Inuyasha." She begins to rub his ear. He purrs through his throat. "I never thought a dog like you can purr." Kagome points out. "It's a pleasurable growl. There's a difference." He grins as he begins to do the same thing. Kagome couldn't hold her own purring sound. "My thoughts exactly." Inuyasha chuckles as he keeps on rubbing her ears. "Pleasurable growl, Inuyasha. Remember that." Kagome tries to correcting the stuff.

A knock on the door gets them out of their little pleasure. "Come in." Inuyasha allows the guest to come in as he and Kagome sit up in their bed. The door opens up to reveal Shippo and Miroku with their baby daughter Kimiko in his arms. "Hey what's going on with the two of you?" Shippo asks as he jumps onto the foot of the bed. "Inuyasha and I just got up. And we just want our alone time." Kagome answers as she leans onto Inuyasha's shoulder while he wraps his arm around her waist. "Thank you for spoiling our fun, runt." Inuyasha stares at him.

Miroku smirks at the scene. "It'd be as if you guys are a family yourselves." He comments to them. Kagome blushes as she hide face in Inuyasha's neck. "I stand corrected." He keeps the smirk on his face. Kimiko begins to whimpers. Miroku rocks her gently to calm her down. "Seems to me you have family issues of you own." Inuyasha counters with his own smirk. Shippo hops off the bed. "I left you a list for what needs to be down today." He said as he and Miroku leave the couple alone.

When the door closed, Inuyasha looks down onto his lap to see a slip of folded paper. Kagome peeks out of his neck, "What does it say?" She asks him quietly. Inuyasha unfolds the paper to see what it says. Once completely unfolded, the paper is list oriented. "It's a lot that we have to do in the King's place of duties." He groans as he passes it to Kagome so she can see it. She reads it. Her eyes widen like saucer plates. "My father expects us to do all of this?" She looks at him. All Inuyasha does is cross his arms.

"It might take us all day to get all of this done." He complains to her as he gets out of the bed to get dressed. Kagome decides to do the same thing. Inuyasha gets his robe of the fire rat on over his white kimono as it tucked in his hakama pants. He finds his black boots and puts on his armor as well. Last but not least he puts his Tetsusaiga onto his hip. He pulls his hair back into a high ponytail as he sees, Kagome changing is a green floral kimono with hair pieces in her long raven hair. Once stepped out, she admired Inuyasha's handsome features with the new armor he was awarded of his choosing for saving her when they arrived in her hometown.

"You look so handsome, Inuyasha." Kagome blushes as she looks away, trying to hide her cheeks. Inuyasha chuckles as he walks up to her. "And you look absolutely gorgeous yourself." He lifts her chin to make her look at him. Kagome smiles and kisses him. Inuyasha responds as they find themselves lost in the kiss. That is until the door opens up and Miroku walks up to them. "Are you going to be kissing all day or are you going to do the king's duties?" He crosses his arms even though he admires the scene. That alone is more than enough for the couple to break apart and walk out of the room with their fingers intertwined.

* * *

Hello my fellow readers, I've decided to start a new story. It's been in my hard drive for years and I felt that I need to continue on writing. Tell me what you think of so far. I bet some of you are aware what this is like to another.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Inuyasha and Kagome arrive at the throne room seeing Miroku, Sango, Kirara, and Shippo talking with Queen Ai. "We're here." Kagome speaks to the group. "Oh, Kagome sweetie." The queen smiles as she runs up to her and hugs her. She smiles up to Inuyasha. "I was worried that you two were out of commission." She comments to them seeing how long it took them to get out of bed. Inuyasha rubs the back of his neck. "Don't worry. It just a while for Kagome and I to wake up." He smiles back to her.

The queen smiles to them, "Well since you two are here, we have to begin what the King usually does." She claps her hands. On that note, Inuyasha digs into his armor to pull out the sheet of paper that Shippo gave them. He unfolds it to see what's the first one. "The first task we have to do if knight a few honored people who has served this kingdom." He reads the note. Miroku smiles at this. "Ah, that's not so hard to do." He pulls out a sword from the shelf. Inuyasha can see how beautiful the sword is. But not as majestic as his Tetsusaiga. The hilt is jeweled with rubies and sapphires. "We might as well get this over with." Inuyasha groans as he takes the sword.

Sango comes up to Kagome. "Why is he in a bad a mood?" She asks her once Inuyasha is out of ear shot. Kagome shrugs her shoulders, "Your guess is as good as mine." She answers the question honestly. Even though they're newlyweds they still need to know a little bit more about each other. Shippo hops onto Kagome's shoulder. "Maybe he's stressed." He gives his guess. That is until Queen Ai takes hold of her daughter's other shoulder. "He might be right. Inuyasha is just worried that things won't go right. If you know what I mean." She gives her opinion. Sango couldn't agree with her more. Kagome nods. "Let's just hope it goes well for his half." She speaks as she walks out of the room to meet Inuyasha in the assigned room.

Inuyasha enters the front room to see a lot of the kingdom's citizens here for the knighthood. "Inuyasha…" Kagome comes up to him from exiting the hallway. Inuyasha turns around to see her walking up to him with smile on her face. Inuyasha can sense how worried she about this. "I bet you're here to help me out with this." He assumes to her. Kagome takes his shoulder. "I'm confident you can pull it off." She kisses him on the cheek. Inuyasha blushes immediately from the kiss. "Come on you guys." Shippo gets their attention as the doors to the outside are opened up by two servants of the castle.

The sunlight shines into the opening of the doors as if it's the spot lights of a studio. The citizens applaud to them as they exit the castle. "Here who are presenting the King are Lord Inuyasha and Princess Kagome." Another servant speaks to make the citizens quiet down. A row of few warriors and soldiers are in the center of the of the courtyard. Inuyasha takes a deep breath as he walks down to the first one. He turns his head to Miroku doing the demonstration of the tradition of knighting a person with his staff. Inuyasha looks down to the sword he is required to use for this. " I hereby knight sir…" He doesn't know the name of the first person. "It's Toshi." Toshi whispers to him. Inuyasha smiles. "I hereby knight sir Toshi." He pats the man's shoulders with the sword's side. But instead is was the sharp edge of the sword that Inuyasha accidently patted. Due to his immense strength, the patted part of the man's shoulder begins to bleed. 'uh oh.' Inuyasha widens his eyes. Toshi quickly holds down the bleeding shoulder and runs off to the medic tent. Inuyasha begins to lose his self-esteem for what he did. 'And I thought these guys have been through worse.' He turns his attention back to the other men who are sweating, showing how scared they are. Inuyasha sighs as he resumes his duty. One by one, each soldier were knighted, the same way Toshi was knighted. As such, they all received the same injury to the shoulder and therefore they were sent to the medic.

After that knighthood incident, All Inuyasha does is growls in frustration for what he did. "Damn. That was terrible." He covers his eyes with his clawed hand. Kagome looks at him worriedly. "Maybe the next one will be better." She tries to cheer him up. Inuyasha looks down to the list, he reads it to through a bottle to a departing ship. He hms. "Seems easy enough." He agrees as they walk down to the docks to see a few ships that are ready to leave the land. "It's the biggest one in the group that is being bottled." Kagome explains to him. Inuyasha looks up ahead to see that there's just one huge one in the group. "It's has to be that one over there." He points with his finger. Kagome smiles as she takes his hand into her own. "I'm right here." Inuyasha smiles back regaining his confidence, making it up from the last failed task.

The dock is filled with other citizens. "Looks like they're waiting for us." Kagome said to Inuyasha as they come up to them. One of the hands over a sake bottle. "This is the bottle." Kagome gives to Inuyasha. Inuyasha wrinkles his nose, can't stand the alcoholic drink in his hand. He turns to see Kagome in the manner. "Let's get this over with." He groans from the smell and heads to the big ship. He looks up to see other citizens boarded ready for their trip. Taking a deep breath, Inuyasha hits the bottle to the ship. Not only did the bottle broke, but with his strength, the ship is shoved into the sea forcing some of the citizens to go overboard. 'Oh no.' He groans again. Kagome walks to him. "It's okay." She pats his arm. Inuyasha smiles to her and turns to see the ship to set sail. But then the spot where the bottle broke made the wood break as well, flooding the ship from outside. 'Not.' He growls. He back in shame. Kagome saddens at the scene. She turns to see the citizens giving the two stares of disappointment.

Throughout the day, with each given task, they just keep on failing. One task was a culinary taste test. And the dish was curry. Inuyasha gulps as that was too spicy for his sensitive tongue. Upon the touch of the curry and the tongue, Inuyasha just screamed in agony. Kagome places her chin onto her hand. "I'm sorry about my husband's behavior." She apologizes to the chef and leaves the kitchen to aid her husband's burning tongue 'At this rate, we're going to be the worst ruler in this kingdom's history.' She sighs sadly.

It's the end of the day and the couple are exhausted from the day's tasks. "I don't how long I can do this, Kagome. This is meant for your father, not me." Inuyasha complains as he removes his armor and places the Tetsusaiga with it, along with his robe of the fire rat, just leaving him in his white inner top and his hakama pants and barefoot since he removed his boots. Kagome changes out of her formal green kimono and takes out the hair pieces that hold her hair up, letting it flow down to her back. "I know. I just didn't even realized how my father would be able to make it look so easy." She agrees with him as she popped her head out of the changing chamber. She walks out in her white kimono and gets under the covers of their bed. Inuyasha joins her. "Maybe because he done it so many times like it's no big deal for him." He tells her as she begins brushing her hair.

Just when she is about to say something, Shippo popped out of the covers. "Oh come on, Inuyasha it wasn't that bad." All Inuyasha does is look at him in anger. He picks up the kid by his tail and throws him out of the room. He quickly closes the door and locks it so he won't come back in. "Honestly, that brat gives me a headache." Inuyasha sits on the bed side holding his head while his elbows are on his knees. Kagome crawls onto his shoulders. "I know it's difficult, but when dad gets better, we're off the hook and we can go back home." She gives a shoulder massage. Inuyasha sighs in content as his wife keeps on going. "Any thoughts on what we should do first when get home?" He asks her. Kagome hesitates for few seconds. "We...what if…we had a few more with us?" She answers nervously. Inuyasha looks up to her. Obviously she's hiding something from him. "Oh come on, Kagome. It's just going to be the two of us. We don't need our friends to be with us all the time." He sits. "But what if they we miniature us?" She dwindles her fingers nervously. Inuyasha is surprised. "Really, Kagome? Got any idea what it was like for me when I was child? I was an outcast of my mother's house. No one excepted me at all. Not in anything I wanted to be a part of." He tries to explain what his life was like before saving her.

Kagome nods back. "I know. I thought of it in theory. Nothing more. I just wanted to know if it would be okay if we had a family of our own. She looks down in sorrow. Inuyasha turns his position to make sure she's on his lap. Inuyasha raises her chin, to make sure she's looking at him in the eye. "Kagome. I'm just worry that our pups would go through the same thing that I did. I'm just not ready for it yet." He admits to her. Kagome nods as she lets her tears fall. Inuyasha wipes them off her cheeks. "Let's just make sure we're ready for it when the time is right. Ok." He presses his forehead onto hers. Kagome nods and is about to kiss until a knock on the door disrupts their time. "Go away, Shippo." Inuyasha shouts at the door. "It's me, Inuyasha." Miroku speaks from the other side. Inuyasha sighs as he opens up to let him. "Please don't tell me I'm dead meat." Miroku shakes his head. "No, it's worst." Hearing that made Inuyasha and Kagome look at each other with worry.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Miroku leads Inuyasha Kagome to the King and Queen's bedroom. They find Sango in a gloomy look. "I must warn you two." Sango manages to say to them. Kagome nods to let her know she's ready to accept whatever she is going to say to them. "It's your father." She begins before Inuyasha goes into the room without listening to what the rest was. Kagome looks inside to see her father in his dog bed, whimpering. "Daddy?" Kagome widens her eyes as she runs to him. Hige coughs miserably. "Ai, dear." Hige mumbles to make sure she's right next to him. Ai kneels down and rubs his neck. "Hige. I'm right here." Hige smiles at the massage. "Where are Kagome and Inuyasha?" Hige asks her. "Right here, daddy." Kagome responds as she kneels down to his level of the bed. Looking at her with a pair of eyes with content and something else. "Kagome, sweetie. You know why I'm here?" He asks her. The answer is obvious. But she just couldn't bring up the courage to say it. "You're dying are you, daddy?" Kagome eyes begin to tear up. All he does is nod. "But why daddy? You're supposed to be a demon. You're supposed to be living a very long life." Kagome explains so far to him.

Hige looks down in shame as the ears on his head flatten to prove it. "I have lived a long live. I've been blessed with you and your little brother." He begins to remember his times. "Wait. I have a brother?" Kagome is surprised at that fact. Hige nods again with shame. "It's true, Kagome." Ai comes in to sit next to her. "Why didn't you tell me this? What on earth did I miss while being locked up in a tower since I was a child?" She turns to her mother and back to her father. But then the wheezing makes her drop the subject until the time was right. "I need to talk to Inuyasha." Hige coughs to get back on topic. Inuyasha kneels down to group while Sango and Miroku stand behind them with sad looks. It was a good that Shippo and the baby was put to bed before this happen.

Inuyasha looks down to the dying dog, "What is it that you want me to do?" He asks the king. Hige raises his head, "I've reach the end of my reign. Because once I'm gone, you are next in line for the throne." He explains how the royal line works. Inuyasha flattens his own ears. "What's the matter, my son?" Hige catches the sight. "I was in the manner when I was a similar position when I was born. However when I was born, my father Inutaishou of the Western Lands passed away, thus leaving my human mother to take care of me. She passed away a few years later. I was just 8 years at that time." Inuyasha explains his personal past to the king. "What became of the Western Lands when he passed away?" Miroku asks Inuyasha from behind.

Inuyasha narrows his eyes, "My older half-brother is the new Lord of the land. I have no interested to inherited them." Hige can see how must of an outcast Inuyasha has been like. "You know, my boy, there's someone else who can take the throne instead of you." He cheers Inuyasha up. "Really? Who?" He turns back to the dog. Kagome rolls her eyes. "My younger brother. Is he allowed to take the throne if Inuyasha refuses the task?" Hige nods. "Yes. Your younger brother, Sota is at the right age to be king." Kagome smiles but then frowns. "Where is he? Ever since I came back home, I never knew him, or ever heard about him." Hige and Ai look at each to see who's better to answer their daughter's question. "Sota is at a private school. He hardly comes home for obvious reasons." Ai speaks first. But then something popped in Kagome's mind. "Wait a minute, if Sota is my brother is he a half dog demon like us?" Kagome asks them franticly. The parents shook their head, thus disappoint her. "No. You were the only half demon in the family. We were just blessed that Sota is human." Kagome understands the scene a bit more, "But why is he at a private school? Our Kingdom has the best education in the land." Kagome asks them.

Ai walks to a dresser to pull out a picture of him. "You should be able to know why we couldn't put him in our kingdom's school." She passes the picture of Sota. Kagome smiles to see such a nice guy her little brother looks. From the facial appearances, Sota has the same brown eyes, and has Ai's hair color and Hige's facial. "The royal family don't enroll their children in the public schools. There's only the royal school that Sota goes and he is only allowed to come home during the holidays." Ai explains to her. Kagome nods. "I see."

Hige's cough gets a bit worst. "Daddy…" Kagome rubs the neck. "Inuyasha…" Hige looks to him. Inuyasha looks at him in his weak eyes, "Inuyasha this is my last task. It's up to you if want to accept this or have my son to be king." Hige spoke softly and seriously and before Inuyasha could give his answer, Hige's eyes shut down completely. Inuyasha lets his bangs to cover his eyes, knowing the rest of everyone else that King has passed on. Kagome hangs her head on Inuyasha's shoulder. Ai weeps her own tears that begin to flow out of her closed eyes. Sango is no different as she cries onto Miroku's shoulders.

The next day, dark clouds cover the kingdom with such gloominess. No a single person are happy at the least. The shops, the parks, every single part of the kingdom's business is closed. All for one reason. The king has died. As everyone attend the king's funeral in the kingdom's cemetery, the citizens dressed in black. They are to remain outside of the cemetery fence, only those of the royal family and friends are allowed inside of the property. Far within the cemetery is a small group in black clothes of the occasion. There they stand in a circle, with a gravestone carves in a bone with the King's name, his date of birth and the date of death.

"…Our beloved King Hige was a man of prosperity and virtue. He was admired by all and a loving father, husband, and he will forever be missed." An old man reads what the scroll for the king. Kagome tries her hardest to prevent her tears from falling. Not just her, Ai and Sango. And even Shippo are all in the same way. Inuyasha and Miroku are doing their best not to show any of their own. They had to stay strong for their wives and for Shippo. Kohaku has Kimiko in his arms, being a great uncle even though he's just a teenager. Kirara rubs her head onto Sango's leg to let her know that she's right here.

The coffin in which holds the deceased dog begins to lower itself into the dug up hole. As the coffin goes down, the clouds darken even more for rain to pour down upon the land. When the burial site is finish, the family walk back in the rain. As they make it to the exit, Inuyasha looks up to see how the citizens are looking at him. 'It's up to you now, Inuyasha.' Hige's words played through his head. "I'll going to fulfill that task. One way or another." He said to himself, not really caring what the rest of the citizens think of his choice.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

After that tragic time, the once joy filled kingdom has fallen into deep sorrow, sadness, alone. It's never going to be the same without their beloved king. Not a single person are in the mood to do their jobs, their business, nothing. And for that, they just closed their stores in honored of the royal family until the queen gives them her word to open up. Even the cloudy skies are keeping this expression of gloom. Back in the palace, Queen Ai looks up to the portrait of her and Hige when there were younger. At that time, Hige was a handsome young man, a prince at that time period, while Ai was the princess from her home kingdom. "Mom…" Kagome knocks on the door gently to get her out of her thoughts. Ai turns around to see Kagome in her regular kimono. "Oh, Sorry I didn't hear you." Ai apologizes as she allows Kagome into the bedroom.

Kagome can't seem to tell if the room of her parents had changed or remained the same ever since she was sent away all those years ago. "Never changed, did it?" Kagome looks around a bit more thoroughly. Like any other royal bedroom of a castle, the master bed was the size of a Californian King. The cloth and fabrics were hand woven with the finest silk in the land. Even the furniture themselves were hand crafted. "Not a single thing has been messed with." Ai comments the room. Kagome look up to the portrait that Ai was looking at earlier. "He'll be dearly missed." Kagome sighs so that she wouldn't cry. Ai agreed with her. Hige was her true love, the only one she ever loved throughout her life. "So how long do you hold the position when dad died?" She asks curiously.

Ai walks to a side table and pulls out a scroll and unrolls it. "According to the customs of when the king passes away, the queen will hold his position until the next month." Ai reads the scroll. Kagome raised her eyebrow. "A month shouldn't be that hard." She tried to cheer her up. Ai shakes her head. "A month isn't much of time I'm provided." Kagome is confused. "Why?" She sits down onto the bed. Ai narrows her eyes, "Even though Hige had most of the kingdom under control, I just made sure that it goes accordingly. I get the final saying of the decision. But with him gone, his duty is now in my hands. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure I keep his legacy alive. And when that last day of the month is upon me, I have to take over my husband's responsibilities. That's why when you came home with Inuyasha, I was so hopeful that he would a great king later on in life." She sits by Kagome.

Kagome can see the conflict in her mother's eyes. Just doing Hige's duties would be over kill for her. Not only that, she hardly leaves the palace since it's the king who does the outside duties for the kingdom. Ai was not much of an outdoorsy woman. She's meant to remain clean. "Even if Sota were to take the throne, he would have a much harder time since he hardly knows anything the royal duties." Ai adds in after the comfortable silence between. "But wouldn't Sota be taught that at his school?" Kagome asks her nicely. Ai shakes her head. "It's not that easy. That school is only meant for the high class of the citizens. Not a single student it to be informed about another's royalty. You get my drift if you know what I mean." That made Kagome frown quickly in disappointment. Just when she had an idea that would be beneficial, it fails right then and there. "It's getting late, sweetie. I'm going to bed early tonight. You should too." Ai stands up and changes in her chamber.

Kagome nods and leaves the room, to let her mother weep in solitude. When she returns to her bedroom, she can see that the cloudy skies prevented any moonlight to shine into the castle's windows. She goes into her chamber and changes for the evening. The door opens up to see Inuyasha walking afterwards. "How did it go?" He asks as he takes off his armor and let his hair down. "No good." Kagome replies honestly with sad tone. She lets her hair down from the hair clips. "What happened?" He asks as he gets under the covers while Kagome gets in from the other side of their bed. "She told me that she only has month to do my father's duties. And by the end of the month she has to make a decision." Kagome begins brushing her as soothing comfort. "And what is her decision?" Inuyasha asks her. "She either takes the full responsibilities or have you or my brother to be the next king." She replies as she puts the brush back onto her table.

Inuyasha can sense how depressed Kagome is, not just her but also her mother. Without the king, Ai has to do his duties. 'I'm not meant for this. The only one left is her brother Sota.' He thinks to himself nonchalantly. "Would Sota know a thing or two about the royalty?" He tries to be hopeful for Kagome's sake. She shakes her head, meaning one thing; no. "Even though he's at school, he's not allow to let a single person to know about his royal blood." She explains to him. Inuyasha holds his chin, "What would happen if something slipped to reveal it?" He asks her. Kagome look at him questionably. "Your guess is as good as mine. I don't know a single that goes on out there." She explains to him. She turns off the light on her side of the bed and goes to sleep, taking her mother's word quite seriously. Inuyasha copies her and hopes that tomorrow will be a better one than it was today.

Far from the castles in its woods, two hooded figures observed the scene. "So the king is gone." One of them speaks. "Most definitely. We have to put out plan into motion." The other replies as it pulls the hood over his head revealing to be Koga. No mistaken that the other figure is Ayame. "It's simple. I just gain their trust, help them recover and see if I can find more secrets that we don't know." She tells him step by step. "What's your plan, Koga?" She looks at him to make sure he's on board with this. "Go after Inuyasha and make sure that he doesn't become king. I'm supposed to the true king of this kingdom but I cannot be rash on this. I'll just have to stay low and strike at the right moment." He tells her his part. Ayame stands back up, "Wish me luck, sweetie." She kisses him on the cheek and disappears into the forest with her leaves. Koga blushes as the kiss made him think twice about his plan. 'Stick to the plan.' He reminds himself. Using his own powers he makes his way to the one place he doesn't really want to go to.

The next morning, Inuyasha looks over his shoulder to see Kagome still sleeping. Normally he would playfully tease her to wake her up. But because of what happened, he's going to set this one out. He shakes her shoulder, "Kagome, wake up." He whispers to her. All Kagome does is moan and go back to sleep. His next attempt is rubbing her ears, but that's not going to work either. "Inuyasha, whatever you going to do, I'm not interested." Kagome spoke in her sleep. Inuyasha pouts and had to do the last thing on the list. 'you asked for it.' He smirks and does the unthinkable. He licks her cheek, like a real dog. Kagome shivers from the touch of his tongue onto her cheek. "Ew, that's just gross, Inuyasha." Kagome glares at him, making him flinch in fear. "Hey I wanted to lighten up the mood." He tries to defend himself. Kagome's face is more than enough to make him scared to death. Just when is about to pounce on her husband, the door being knocked stopped her in her tracks.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Koga arrives a tavern deep within the woods, away from the kingdom's city. So far for Koga knows about this place, he's not going to enjoy this one bit. He knocks on the door. Soon the little window in the door slides open to reveal an angry look. "What do you want? You're not welcome here." It speaks rudely, even if it's true from his tone of voice. Koga looks up to the sign to the side of the door to read 'I forbid these people from entering this establishment.' Koga looks down the list to see that his name was added just recently due to the extra pieces of wood for each person. "Ah. Okay. But you wouldn't turn down from a proposition I might intrigue not just you but everyone else in the bar." He tries to use his sharp tongue to make the guy believe him immediately. "Not interested." It replies and slams the sliding door. Koga growls, "Dammit. What else could I do? I can't just sneak in and tell any of them about what my plan will be." He said to himself. He walks around the place, hoping that what he just said earlier might be useful for once.

Inuyasha crosses his arms as he and Kagome come into the throne room where Queen Ai is sitting alone since the king's chair is now empty. "Inuyasha. Have you come up with your decision yet?" She ask him politely. Inuyasha looks around himself to see his friends are waiting for his answer. "I'll go retrieve your son, your highness." He finally gives them his answer. The Queen nods as she pulls something from her robe's sleeves. "This is the map of the school that Sota is in. It should take you about two days to get there from here." She explains to him as she gives it to him. Inuyasha unrolls the scroll to see what the map looks like. "It's at the southern part of the mainland." He exclaims to her. All she does is smile. "I don't see what the problem is." She comments his reaction and turns to her daughter. "Kagome…"

Kagome looks to her mother, "What is it mother?" She asks her. Ai smiles at her. "I believe you have something else to tell us." Everyone all look at her now, even Inuyasha. "Tell us what?" Shippo hops onto her shoulder. Kagome doesn't feel ready to tell them her little secret. She doesn't want them to know. Not yet though. "I...uh…" She is about to respond until Shippo sniffs her closely. "Shippo, it's not nice to sniff a person in their personally." Sango takes him off Kagome's shoulder. Not only did Shippo sniffed her, Inuyasha and Kirara are as well. "Could you just please just stop." Kagome scream for being very uncomfortable with proximity of her friends on her.

"Oh come on, Kagome. Your scent just changed." Shippo states out. "My scent? I don't recall using a different body wash when taking my baths." Kagome sniffs herself. "No I mean not just your own scent, but someone else's is in your scent." Shippo tells her. Kagome turns to Inuyasha for a better exclamation instead of Shippo's. "You're pregnant." Shippo tells her quickly before Inuyasha could say anything else. Kagome widens her eyes. "I…" Kagome faints, as Inuyasha catches her in his arms so she wouldn't hurt herself from the impact on the wooden floors. Inuyasha glares at the kid. "Nice going, you little runt. Thanks to your blabbering mouth, you made my wife faint." He carries Kagome bridal style back into their room with scowl of his own.

When Inuyasha left the room, the rest of group look down to Shippo in disappointment. "What?" He asks innocently. Queen Ai kneels down to his size. "Shippo, sweetie. I was with Kagome the other day who was very sick and I had to take her to our family physician to check on her. When we found out she was pregnant she didn't want us to know about it until she was ready." She takes hold of the kid's shoulder as he begins to feel bad for what he did. "I'm sorry…" Queen Ai just presses a finger to silent him nicely. "First off, we give our little couple to recuperate and when Kagome's ready, you apologize okay." She smiles down to him. Shippo nods and hugs her leg. "So what are we going to do since he slipped the message." Kohaku asks her. Queen Ai picks up the kid into her arms. "For now, we'll wait until they want to come out. And forget what Shippo said." She advices them. Sango and Miroku nod in agreement as they go to the kitchen to feed Kimiko.

Back in Inuyasha and Kagome's bedroom, Inuyasha rests his wife onto the bed. "That brat doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut." Inuyasha growls as he walks to the balcony to think on what to do with that kid the next time he sees him. Turning her sit to his wife, he flattens his ears, showing how uncertain he is about this unexpected news. 'I knew she was pregnant, but I didn't want to say anything about it.' He leans onto the balcony's railings, not knowing on what to do from this point on. Well for now he just confirmed that he has to retrieve Sota to make sure he can take the throne, that is if he's up for it. And now with his wife pregnant, it really had got him in a dilemma.

When he was born, his father only gave him his name, and sacrificed himself to save him and his mother from a warrior. Afterwards, his childhood was not happy, not even the slightest. Being a half demon was nothing more than an outcast, lonely, and nothing he can do with the others, mainly the humans who lived in the area with him and his mother. Not long after his mother passed way at a young age, Inuyasha had to flee, being highly independent. Which was why he was much of a socializing person. 'I don't my pup to go through all of that. It'd be déjà vu.' Kagome moans singling him to come to her side. "Hey you okay?" He asks as he helps her sit up. Kagome frowns, "Honestly, that kid is dead meat." She balls her fists. Inuyasha can tell it's the swing moods. "Calm down, Kagome. I was aware of it but I respected your wishes, but Shippo didn't understand the phrase." He takes holds of her fists. Kagome looks out the window. "Inuyasha. When I found out I wanted to make sure if we were really ready for this big step." She looks back to him in the eye.

Inuyasha has no idea on what to say about this. "Kagome, I was just worried about the future of our pup. I just don't want them to go through the same path I walked on. I just couldn't bear it." He honestly replies to her. Kagome leans onto his shoulder. "I just wish our pup will have a better life. If you know what I mean." Inuyasha wraps his arm around her shoulder. "Same here." He replies to her with a gentle stroke. He places his hand on her abdomen, feeling a little buddle of life growing within her. Kagome places her hand under his.

After a few hours, Kagome and Inuyasha come down to the dining room to find their friends eating. "Have you calm down yet?" Sango asks Kagome as she sits down next to her. "Yeah I had to get the stress off my chest." Kagome smiles as she begins to eat a lot, which shocks the group. When Miroku is about to make a comment, Sango covers his mouth. "So what's going on from this point?" Kohaku asks a more appropriate question. "Well I just said that I'm going to retrieve Sota." Inuyasha speaks so far. "I don't think you should go alone." Miroku points out to him. That made Inuyasha look at him offendedly. "Why? You don't think I can take care of this on my own?" He said as if his pride it hurt. Miroku stops him with his hand. "I'm not saying that. Since it's going to be 2 days, I thought I tag along with you." He explains easily. "I'm going too." Kohaku volunteers with his hand up.

Kagome at Kohaku's confidence. "No. I can do this on my own." Inuyasha declines their offers. Kagome just takes hold of his arm, "Seriously, Inuyasha. You need to stop being so arrogant and let them go with you. It wouldn't hurt to have a guys' trip." She reasons with him. Inuyasha lets his ego down, knowing that Kagome has a point there. He needs to keep that to a minimum and let them come along. "Fine. We can leave first thing in the morning." He changes his mind and begins eating, knowing that Kagome was happy to see things go 'her' way instead of his.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The next morning, Inuyasha, Miroku, and Kohaku head down to the docks for their boat. "Wait for me!" Shippo cries as he tries to catch up to them. Inuyasha raised his eyebrow. "Why are you here?" He kneels down to his level. "I want to come with you. Isn't it obvious?" Shippo points out. Inuyasha stands back up. "Sorry, Shippo. Kagome is going to have her baby shower and she would deeply appreciate it if you stay here with her." Inuyasha declines to child's plea. Shippo sadly sighs. "If you say so." He admits defeat. That's when Kagome comes down to the docks with Sango, Queen Ai, Kirara, and Soten. "Please Shippo. Inuyasha, Miroku and Kohaku are able to take care of themselves." Sango reasons to the kid as she carefully kneels down to him while holding her baby in her arms. Kimiko coos as she tries to reach for Shippo's furry tail.

Kagome smiles the see the bond between the baby and Shippo. She walks up to her husband. "You'll be gone for a few days. I'm lonely already." She playfully teases him. Inuyasha jumps off the boat and lands in front of her gracefully. "Oh, come on Kagome. I don't think that a few days away from each other is the end of the world." He chuckles back at her. Kagome just pouts. "You're no fun." She comments as she crosses her arms and turns her back at him. Inuyasha side smirks and wraps his arms around her waist. "Seriously. When I come back your brother, we can go back home to the forest." He rubs her one ear. Kagome couldn't resist the massage on her ear, she leans onto his chest. "Okay. Just be careful." She whispers to him lovingly. Inuyasha turns her around to give her a quick kiss and gets back onto the boat. Miroku and Kohaku unhook the robe that tied the boat to the dock and quickly jump in.

As the boat sets sail, Everyone waved good-bye to each other as it disappear into the horizon, Ayame smiles at the scene "So Inuyasha and his friends are sailing off." That is until, she slips on the cliff and screams as she falls into the water. "What was that?" Sango asks as they look around the shore to find where the splash came from. Kagome runs towards where Ayame comes up to the surface. "Over there!" She points to the girl. Kirara and Sango fly over to get the girl to safety. "Hurry, grab my hand!" Sango shouts as Kirara flies close to the water. Ayame grabs hold. "Kirara, let's head back to the others." Sango tells her feline companion. Kirara growls as she fly quickly to return.

Kirara lands softly, not to hurt the injured girl. "Hey, okay?" Kagome asks her nicely as Ayame groans as she grabs hold of her leg. "I think I hurt my leg." Ayame replies as she tries to stand on her good one. "We should get you back to the castle." Kagome suggests. Ayame agrees as Sango and Kagome help her get to the castle. All that left was the queen, with Kimiko in her arms, Shippo and Soten. "Is she going to be okay?" Soten asks the queen worriedly. All the queen does is smile. "She's in good hands." Reassures the kids as she walks on ahead to meet her daughter. "Something's not right about that girl." Soten tells Shippo serious this time. "How so?" Shippo asks her. Sota narrows her eyes. "She has the scent of wolf." She clarifies the detail. Shippo widens his eyes. "You don't think…" Soten covers his mouth. "No doubt about it. She's working with that Koga. We have to tell the others." She is about to run off, but Shippo jumps onto her. "No. We can't risk it. We have to find out what her plans are. That's when we strike. We can't raise suspicion." Shippo spoke into her ear so it's just between them. Soten nods to let the fox demon know she gets it. "Until then, we just pretend we didn't have this discussion." Shippo gives a piece of advice. "Okay I get it." Soten stands back up which made Shippo roll off of her. As such they run up to the castle to stick to their own plan.

Miroku and Kohaku begin their own fishing. "Who do you think will get the bigger catch?" Kohaku spoke cockily. Miroku narrows his eyes to the water, "My guess is mine." He replies with his own cockiness. They both turn around to see Inuyasha just leaning on the railing, seeming he's no interested in fishing. "Hey." Miroku walks up to him. Inuyasha turns his head to his friend. "What?" He replies rather rudely this time. "What's going on here, Inuyasha? You've been quiet throughout the trip so far." Miroku points out the scene. "It's nothing for you to be concerned about." Inuyasha replies as he looks down to the water of the sea. "My guess is that being a father isn't so exciting." Kohaku comments to Miroku.

Inuyasha growls, scaring the boy. "Hey knock it off, you two." Miroku gets in between them. "Hey he started it." Inuyasha accuses the boy. Kohaku glares back, "Hey, it's not my fault for you to get yourself into that position." Just hearing that crossed the line. Miroku couldn't stand being in the middle of a friend between these two. "Alright, that's enough. Both of you." He does his best to prevent any further quarreling. That alone made Inuyasha and Kohaku cross their arms, turning their back and humphs. "Fine." They both said at the same time. All Miroku is does is sighs in relief. 'Maybe a few minutes apart will help them cool this feud.' He hopes in his thoughts.

A few hours later, Miroku's thoughts were answered. "So how much father are we to the place where Sota is?" Kohaku asks Miroku, not wanted to make Inuyasha angry again. Miroku thinks about the time for how long they left. "I'd say by tomorrow. We should be there by then." After fishing for a few hours, both guys managed to get the same amount. "So we stack with food for dinner tonight." Miroku smiles for what they were able to accomplish. It wasn't long until the sun begins to set and the stars appear in the dusk with the moon shining its glow to them. "I'm calling it a day." Inuyasha tells them as he goes inside and sleeps in one of the futons.

After setting his armor and sword to the side of the cot, Inuyasha begins to get very nervous about what it'll be like when Kagome's baby is born. A lot of thoughts ran through his head. Like what will his pup look like? Will it be rejected like he was when he was child? It's one question after another. Minute after minute couldn't hold his thoughts any longer and doses off.

The boat rocks as it lands on the shore. The shaking forces Inuyasha to wake up instantly. He puts on his armor and grabs his sword. "What happened?" He asks the guys, but they were nowhere to be found. How odd. That is until he sees his home. He smiles. "Home at last." He said joyfully as he jumps off the boat and runs inside to see it like it was when he left. "Inuyasha." Kagome's voice calls out to him. "Kagome! Kagome?" He looks around to find her. But she's gone as well. "Kagome?" He asks. But then something else gets his attention. The door opens to reveal something that Inuyasha has never seen before. Right in front of him is a basket. The basket shook itself. Which means one thing. A living being is in it.

Inuyasha gulps as he nervously removes the little curtain. What's inside made his eyes widen like saucers. It's a baby. Not just any baby, it looks like Inuyasha with the white silvery hair and pointy ears. But those eyes are brown, just like Kagome's. "He's here at last." Kagome runs passes him and picks up the baby. The baby coos as he smiles to the mother. "Hello there sweetie." Kagome presses her forehead to his. Inuyasha isn't believing what he's seeing. "Want to hold him, Inuyasha?" Kagome turns to his direction.

Inuyasha looks down to the baby. That was until the baby snuggles into Kagome's chest to show that he's scared of him. "It looks like he doesn't like me." Inuyasha tells her calmly. Kagome looks down to their son. "Nonsense, Inuyasha. He should love you as much as he loves me." She assures him. But that's not working. All of sudden, fire engulfs the house. "Oh no." Inuyasha quickly takes off his robe of the fire rat. "We need to get you two to safety." He tells her seriously. Just when they got out of the house, the flames catches them as if they had hands. Upon contact of the group, Kagome and the baby begin to burn. "What's going on? Why are they being burned?" Inuyasha asks. His robe of the fire rat is supposed to be impervious to fire. "That's because they don't deserve to live." A voice answers his question. Kagome screams in pain as the fire burn her body. "Kagome!" Inuyasha rushes to her, but the fire was too much for him to get any closer to his wife and baby. "You're not worthy to live either." The voice taunts him. Inuyasha turns around to see Kagome and the baby are dead, burned to a crisp. The fire vanish and Inuyasha runs to them. He is absolutely horrified. The robe is gone as well. They're gone. All Inuyasha does in drop to his knees. All he could do is pick up his dead wife's body and the baby into his arms. "KAGOME!"

Inuyasha sits up quickly, pants as sweat form on his face. He looks around to see both Miroku and Kohaku sleeping peacefully. 'Just a dream.' He tells himself as he looks to his clawed hands. 'I just hope that doesn't happen for real.' He gets up and heads outside. So far the night is beginning to lighten up as the east is showing an orange glow. 'Sunrise.' He tells himself as he sees the land up ahead. 'Let's get this over with.' And for that he hopes that thought is right in his favor.

* * *

For those who are guest and writing reviews for the story, I want to point out that, yes, Koga and Ayame are both wolf demons, hence why Shippo and Soten were able to pick up the scent easily.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Back at the castle, Kagome and Sango are tending Ayame's leg. "What were you doing on that cliff? It's off limits to civilians." Kagome kindly scold hers. Ayame watches carefully to see Kagome finishing wrapping the bandages on her leg. "I didn't know that. I'm sorry." She apologizes to the two girls. "Well accidents happen. At least you're not dead." Shippo spoke a bit too rudely to the red head. Sango softly hits him on the head. "Ow! What did I do?" He looks up to her. Sango looks down to him, "You should know better not to say something that could hurt someone's feelings." She speaks to him with a disappointed look on her face. "All I said was…" Soten covers his mouth so he wouldn't say another thing that might be rude. "I think he learned his lesson, Sango." Soten glares at the kid. "Sorry about him. I forgot your name." Soten looks up to Ayame.

Ayame blushes in her rudeness. "Oh, I'm sorry about me not introducing myself. I'm Ayame." She said to them with a smile. 'I know that the orange haired kid is a fox, and the girl next to him is from somewhere else.' She said in her mind as she turns her sight back to Kagome. 'And she's pregnant. How nice.' She smiles wickedly in her head so she would ruin her charade in the group. "Well, are you hungry, Ayame?" Kagome asks as she puts the first aid kit away. Ayame wasn't going to say anything until her stomach growls in protest. "Sounds to me that you _are_ hungry." Kagome smiles to her. "Any requests?" Ayame had to think of something. "Maybe a steak please." She asks shyly. Kagome smiles, "Sure. I'll get the chef to make you some steak." She leaves the room. Sango ushers the kids to leave the room as well. With the door closed, Ayame smiles to herself. 'Going according to plan.'

Miroku and Kohaku jump off of their boat when it gets closed to the dock. Inuyasha throws the rope overboard so the others can tie it down. "So this is the place." Inuyasha states as they look over the hill to see a castle looking place. "Looks like it." Kohaku replies as they begin to walk up towards it. "Got any idea what it looks like?" Miroku asks Inuyasha. Inuyasha shoves his hands into his sleeves. "How should I know? I've never been here before." He answers bluntly. Kohaku runs up ahead to get to the top. That is what he sees made him gasp. "What's the matter, Kohaku?" Miroku asks him. "Guys, you're not going to believe me even if I told you the truth." Kohaku answers as he turns around. Inuyasha and Miroku look at each other and run up to see what's beyond the horizon. "Just what is this place?" Inuyasha asks Kohaku. They see it's a castle looking place, but in the center of the property are spots with various purposes of some sort. "It's High School." Kohaku tells him. Miroku doesn't seem to worried about it, and neither is Inuyasha. "Why so tense about this place, Kohaku?" Miroku asks the boy.

Kohaku takes a deep breath. "This is where I came from before I left for Far Far Away." He honestly replies to them. Inuyasha looks down to see students just minding their own business. "I don't see anything wrong about this place." He comments the place. That is until Kohaku takes hold of his sleeve. "Oh you don't even know the half of it. Have you ever been to school before?" Inuyasha raised his eye. "Please don't tell me you never been to school." He asks in shock. "Nope." Inuyasha crossed his arms. "Then where on earth did you get your education?" Kohaku asks him.

"HEY LOOK IT'S KOHAKU!" A kid's voice shouts from down the hill. Kohaku looks down to see some of them coming toward them. Kohaku widens his eyes, "Uh-oh." He runs in different direction of the property. "AFTER HIM!" Another kid shouts in madness. Miroku and Inuyasha look down to see a few of the kid have big items in their hands, as if they're going to attack him. "Doesn't look good." Miroku tells him as he is about to go down to intervene. "Nah, let's just give a few minutes to see how this goes. I don't sense anything dangerous about them." Inuyasha disagrees with Miroku's idea. Miroku can see Kohaku is running rather quickly. More than ever. It'd be as if he's the fastest runner of the group. "Hey what bring you two here?" An elderly person asks them. Inuyasha shows a look of annoyance. "We're here looking for…" Inuyasha grabs Miroku's robe and pulls him away. "Bad idea." He whispers into the monk's ear.

The elder smiles, "Well, well, well. If it isn't Inuyasha Takahashi." He spoke in satisfaction in his voice. Inuyasha groans, as he drops the monk, "It's been a long time, hasn't it my boy." The old man walks up to him. "Hello, Totosai." Inuyasha turns half way to with a not so happy look on his face. "My goodness, you've grown over the years. How's is going?" Totosai comes up to his former pupil. "So this is your master, Inuyasha?" Miroku dusts himself after getting back up. "Indeed, I am. I'm the headmaster of this facility. Totosai." He gestures his hand. Miroku gladly shakes his, "I'm Miroku. A traveling companion of Inuyasha." He introduces himself. Totosai smiles and the frowns, "Wasn't there another one in your group?" Totosai asks him.

Inuyasha points down to the group. "He's down there getting chased." Inuyasha points down the hill. Totosai narrows his beady eyes and smiles to see a familiar boy. "Ah, Kohaku is here. That boy was the top one in the school. And then he left." Totosai tells them what he knows so far about the boy's backstory. "Nice. But we're here looking for someone." Inuyasha wants to get to the point of their visit. "Oh really, and who would that be?" Totosai strokes his beard. "We're looking for Sota Higurashi. He's here in this school, isn't he?" Miroku asks the question. Totosai ahs, "Ah yes, he's here. And thankfully he's not in that crowd going after Kohaku." He gestures the two men to follow him into the school.

Somewhere in the school, a classroom is dark with just a person trying to practice, "Now!" He tells himself as he is about to do a stunt of some sort. Until the door open, "Sota, you have visitors." Totosai shouts in. that made Sota lose his balance and crash onto the floor. "Sorry, Mr. Totosai, I was just practicing." Sota rubs the back of his head where he feels the pain. Totosai steps aside to let Inuyasha and Miroku enter. "Who are you two?" Sota stands up to them. Inuyasha can tell resemblances between him and Kagome. Both with brown eyes, raven black hair, while Kagome's is long, and Sota's is short to the ears. "Hey kid, do you want to get out of this place?" Inuyasha asks him immediately. Sota looks at wearily. "There are times I want to, and there are times I won't." He answers him. Miroku comes up to him, "And why is that?" He asks him nicely, to see if he'll be more honest than he's telling them. Miroku goes to the windows and let the natural light illuminate the room. Inuyasha looks around the room to see various weapons, almost like Kohaku's. "Are you trying to be a demon slayer?" Miroku asks him. Sota sighs, "Yeah. Ever since I was sent here, my dad wanted me to be something else instead of royal blood." He starts off. Totosai clears his throat. "Sota, you know better not to mention anything about royal blood." He tells him seriously. Inuyasha looks confused, "What is it a bad idea to talk about royal blood?" He asks Totosai. Totosai turn his sight to him. "Just mentioning it would be chaotic. If a word to be slipped, they're do whatever they could to be part of it. Wars, calamity, you get the idea." He explains to them. "So that's why you want to be a demon instead of your old man?" Inuyasha kind of figures it out. Sota smiles, "Sure do."

"Yeah about that. You see, your father passed away." Miroku had to bring the bad news. Sota widens his eyes, "He died?" He asks in disbelief. "Afraid so. You see you're the only one left in the family to the take the throne." Inuyasha tells him nonchalantly. "But what about my sister? Shouldn't she be the one to take the throne?" Sota tries to see if she's up for the job. "I'm afraid Kagome is married and her husband isn't too thrilled about it." Miroku answers the question. Sota raised his eyebrow, "I had no idea my big sister would get married. She must be happy to have him as a husband." He smiles fondly. "So what is her husband like?" He asks Miroku. Miroku points with his thumb towards Inuyasha. "If you want to know more about Kagome's husband, he's right here." Sota turns the direction and widens his eyes. "You're my sister's husband?" He shouts in delight. "Wow, I would never have guested that you would wed my sister." He is now admiring his new brother in law.

But then something crossed his mind. "Wait a minute, if you're my sister's husband, wouldn't you be the next king of my hometown?" He asks him curiously. "I'm not royal material. No kingdom would want a half-demon like me to rule." He reasons casually. Sota nods sadly. "So this is why you came for me. To go back to my hometown. I'll pass." He refuses and walks out of the room. "Hey, you're not going anywhere." Inuyasha goes after him, But Totosai firmly grips his upper arm. "He just found out what happened. He needs to time to calm down so he can think this through." He explains this for a teenager's point of view. "Besides you may want to know that your parents were from a high class position that it should make you proud." He tries to remind Inuyasha about what he had to go through.

"I'm going to take a look around." Miroku sneaks out of the classroom. "Just stay out of my student's businesses." Totosai warns the monk. "Will do." Miroku agrees and goes off on his own. "Now, Inuyasha. I have something I want to show you." Totosai walks out of the classroom with his former pupil behind him. Inuyasha crossed his arms, not really interested, 'Might as well.' He mentally growls as he follows the old man.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Miroku wanders around the hallways of the building. 'Not bad for an education.' He comments the interior. He turns the corner and hears a whisper. "Miroku, up here." Miroku turns to see Kohaku hiding in one of the lockers. "What in the god's name are you doing in there?" he raised his eyebrow in amusement. Kohaku peeks out a little to make sure the coast is clear. "Isn't it obvious? I'm fleeing from students who either despise me or admired me." He explains as he gets out. Miroku blinks his eyes, "I had no idea that you'd be the talk of the school. What made you leave?" He asks. "I think I hear him!" A girl's voice shouts from the hallway. Kohaku gulps and grabs Miroku's sleeve and drag him into a vacant room. He closes it and locks it so no one could find them. "I was a great athlete at my time. Girls went gag over me, while the guys were jealous." Kohaku tells Miroku as they get comfortable. Miroku nods, "I see. So that's why you were trying to go into hiding." He now gets it. It's the popularity status. Kohaku sighs, "Yeah. It got too much for me to bear so I had to leave." He explains his departure. Miroku is now envious about this boy's backstory. As such he holds his chin.

Kohaku look up to him in suspicion. "What are you doing?" He asks the older man. "Nothing." Miroku quickly responds. Kohaku narrows his eyes, "It better not flirting with those girls. My big sister wouldn't be too thrilled to know about this." He crosses his arms to prove his point. Miroku pretend to be hurt. "Oh Kohaku. Rest assured I would never do such a thing." He responds innocently. But that's not going to convinced. "You better not." He warns the guy.

Totosai leads Inuyasha into his office. Inuyasha looks around to see various awards and trophies of events that happened in this school's history. "Why bring me here?" Inuyasha asks Totosai. Totosai digs into the drawer to pull out something. Out comes a make-up pouch. "I'm not one to wear make-up, you old geezer." Inuyasha crosses his arms rudely to him. Totosai narrows his beady eyes. "You never learn when to use proper manners. It's no wonder you got that attitude from your father." He resorts to the younger. "Besides, you don't know what this is, do you?" He gets to the point of the conversation. Inuyasha looks down to the item in Totosai's hand. "Looks like a make-up kit to me." He tells him honestly. "This here was your mother's, Inuyasha. It was when she and Inutaishou met at this school. When the year ended, while everyone were cleaning out their lockers, Izayoi accidentally dropped this. Inutaishou was walking behind her and picked it up for her. And you wouldn't believe what he said to her the first time." Totosai begins his story. Inuyasha shrugs his shoulders, singling it as a no. "He told he that her personal scent was the best he ever smelled in his life. The make-up kit isn't going to help your scent covered with another." He tells Inuyasha as he gives it to him.

"Why give it to me though?" Inuyasha takes the make-up kit. "Tell me this, Inuyasha. Do you have anything else that once belonged to your mother?" Totosai asks him. Inuyasha looks down to the make-up kit, looks inside to see what's in it. So far, there's blush, mascara, eyeliner, and it appears that one of the pockets is missing something. "It's her lipstick pouch." He realized that it's missing the lipstick pouch. "Yes. Ever since she and Inutaishou had you, she wanted you to pass down that one item to your own mate." Totosai explains the reason of it. "Inuyasha. Are you sure you don't want to take your mate's kingdom's throne." He asks curiously. Inuyasha flattens his perked ears, "I just couldn't do it. While Hige was in bed trying to get better, the tasks were too much for me to do. Besides I don't anyone there would want me, a half demon to take the throne. That's why I'm here to see if Kagome's younger brother, Sota could take the throne instead of me." Inuyasha said to him honestly. Totosai can see it in his eyes, The expression of rejection. Even at young age, Inuyasha wouldn't be allowed into any social group. "I know how much it affected you throughout the years. But that was in the past, Inuyasha." Totosai tries to cheer him up. Inuyasha glares at him. "The past is what brought me here. I have never had a single friend who would like to hang out with me." Totosai tsk tsk. "On the contrary, Inuyasha. What's going right now is that you have friends, you have a mate. What more could you ask for your life?" He sits down in his chair.

Sota is sitting on the roof of the school. 'There's no way I could be king. Inuyasha is better suited for the job.' He speaks with such low self-esteem. 'All I'm here for is for something, but I don't know what that is.' He looks up the hill to see the sun beginning to set. "Sota." A male voice made him turn around. The doors open to reveal Inuyasha coming out. "Oh it's you." Sota speaks in sarcasm. Inuyasha just walks up to him and sits by him. "Listen, I wasn't too thrilled when your father was on his deathbed. And I'm sorry you weren't informed about it sooner." He tries to start a conversation. Sota just looks down in dejection. "I'm just royal material if that's what you're thinking about." Inuyasha sighs, "I was in the same situation that you're in right now." He speaks his mind. Sota turns his head, "Like what exactly?" That made Inuyasha think a bit longer, "Like not being accepted into anything you tried to be in." He gives one example. Sota knows that he has a point, like him, he was never accepted in anything. No social groups, no clubs, nothing. "And you think me being a king would do any better?" Sota mumbles, but Inuyasha heard that loud and clear. "I don't know. If I became king, it wouldn't go so smoothly at all." Inuyasha spoke the truth. "I didn't expect that your father pass away all of a sudden. And since his death, your mother has 30 days until she makes up her mind for who should be the next ruler of the kingdom." Sota had no idea that his mother would have to be in that situation.

"So I guess that why you want me to take the throne as soon as possible." He realized that much. "I know that this is a high class school, and no one is to know about another's position of the kingdom. If such a word was out, others would conspire behind your backs to gain the throne. And that's why we have to make sure you get out of here now." Inuyasha tries to persuade him. Sota is now in a dilemma. 'What should I do?' He asks himself in much uncertainty. "When I was born, my father died, trying to save me and my mother from my mother's house was one fire from her local villagers.' Inuyasha tells Sota his own backstory. "Why would the villagers set your mom's house on fire?" He was surprise. Inuyasha narrows his eyes. "When they heard about my birth, they didn't like such a being to be in their society. My father was fatally hurt from a battle and when he heard that my mother was in labor, he had to come to us and get us to safety. But a skilled warrior blocked our way so my father had no choice by to stay behind to let my mom and I to escape the burning house." Along the way of his story, the bangs begin to cover his eyes. "So I don't know much about my old man. Only my mother and Totosai are the only ones who know him." He grips his Tetsusaiga firmly. "This sword was passed down to me from my father. This is all I can do if I were to really connect to him if I could." Sota can see so far that Inuyasha had been way more turmoil than his own. 'It wouldn't hurt to try though.' Sota smiles in his head.

Back at the castle, Sango, Shippo, and Soten are decorating the room for Kagome's baby shower. "How does it look, Sango?" Shippo asks as he puts up streamers around the lights in the ceiling. Sango smiles. "Looks good, Shippo." She turns around to see Soten using her lightning powers to light the candles in the chandelier. "Will this do?" She asks the older woman. "Yep. Come on down, you two. We're calling it a day." The two kinds land back onto the floor and leave the room. "I bet Kagome will be surprised to have this." Shippo tells Sango. Sango keeps the smile in check, "I'm sure she will be." She agrees with the fox. After closing the door and walking to the kitchen, Ayame is walking in the hallway with a crutch to help with her leg. 'So it appears that Kagome is pregnant. Intriguing.' She grins as she heads back to her bedroom so no one would suspect her.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Inuyasha and Sota make their way back to Totosai's office. "Are you sure I'm ready for this? I've never done anything like this before." Sota begins to doubt himself again. Inuyasha takes a deep breath so he would snap at the boy, but then something crossed his mind. "Hey, is it just me or a you a prin.." Sota quickly covers his mouth. "Don't you dare say anything about my position of my family." He whispers angrily as he takes the hanyou down by surprise. 'Not bad to take me down.' Inuyasha smiles at this. "Inuyasha. Sota." The two look up to see Miroku carrying Kohaku over his shoulder. "What happened to him?" Inuyasha stands back. Miroku took a look at the boy. "Oh him. He was taken down by the students who were after him a few hours ago." Miroku adjusts his hold. Sota walks up to the older boy. "Poor guy." He comments as he can see that Kohaku had been knocked out. "For a demon slayer, they're supposed to be on their guard and not be outwitted by their enemies." Sota explains on tip of the demon slayer groups.

Miroku looks down to the boy, "Impressive, Have you ever spar with another of them?" He asks Sota. Sota frown, "Sadly no. Only Kohaku was the top student after his sister. Ever since he left, no one in this entire school were as good at them. So I thought I could use this method as self-defense." He explains why he took the subject. Inuyasha smiles down to him. "Quite resourceful." He compliments to youngster. "Ok, let's go see Totosai." Sota runs on ahead. Miroku hands over Kohaku's body to Inuyasha. "What the…" Inuyasha begins to complains. "…My shoulder is worn out. Your turn." Miroku runs after Sota. All Inuyasha is twitch his eyes. "For the love of god, I'm left with the heavy lifting." He states as he can easily carry the unconscious boy on his shoulder.

Totosai is reading a few scrolls on the table. The door opening alerts him immediately. "Oh, it just you guys." He simply states the obvious scene. He then notice Kohaku on Inuyasha's shoulder. "What happened to him?" The old man was handed over the boy from Inuyasha's hold. "He got caught by the mob and got pummeled." Miroku answers as Totosai sets the boy onto the floor. "At least he's unconscious because this is something I can tell you guys before you head back to the kingdom." Totosai spoke seriously. Inuyasha immediately looks at him. "What's the problem?" He asks as the guys sit down. "It's just a hunch, nothing more." Totosai begins to speak. "When Kohaku first came here, Sango made sure he had a weapon handcrafted by me." He goes into one part of the room and opens up a chest. He pulls out the item. What he pulls out was something that made the others widen their eyes in awe. "It looks like Kohaku's own weapon." Miroku points out. "True, but this was meant to be secret. I've been hanging onto it until the time is right." Totosai retorts to them. "So what's its significant?" Sota asks him this time. Totosai looks to the boy. "This is going to be your weapon, youngster." He answers the question.

Sota looks up to him in confusion. "I'm sorry. I'm not a person who carries a weapon as if I'm a threat to anyone." He protests the offer. That made Totosai chuckle, "Nonsense, I never said that you had to use it. In fact, you're just going to hang onto it for a while. Currently, Kohaku's weapon is so worn out that it might break in his next battle." Sota now understands so far. "But why tell us while Kohaku's unconscious?" Totosai turns to the boy, "The weapon he has was his first and he cannot get rid of it that easily. If I were to take it away from him, believe me, I'd never hear the end of it." He frowns in the end. "So in other words, you want this to a surprised gift for him when the time is right." Inuyasha tells him. "Precisely. So I'm counting on you guys to keep this from Kohaku until that time comes." Totosai nods for his final word. "But first Inuyasha, mind that I fix up Tetsusaiga?" He turns to him. Inuyasha feels the sword rattling. "It needs its creator to boost its power." Totosai explains the rattling. Seeing that this is no threat, he simply hands it to him. "So far, it respects you for what you managed to accomplish. No bad so far." Totosai smiles at him. "But there's something missing from it." He looks at the blade after unsheathing it. Miroku tilts his head, "From the looks of it, it's been through a lot than you saying." He comments the sword's features. Totosai shakes his head, "No that's where you're wrong. You see this sword is one of a kind." He tells him so far. "It was forged by Inuyasha's father. With his own fang." Miroku looks at Inuyasha opening his mouth. "Ready as I'll ever be." Inuyasha speaks up with his mouth still open. Totosai grabs a pair of plyers, and yanks one of Inuyasha's fang out as well. Once yanked, Inuyasha screams at the top of his lungs.

Throughout that one second, the entire school are at a stand-still. With each person just curious what that scream was about. "Alright class, let's just forget that scream resume our session." One of the teachers calm down the room. Miroku turns to see Kohaku still out cold. "Oh god, even after that scream, Kohaku didn't wake up." He speaks in such surprise. Totosai and Inuyasha turn to his direction but doesn't seem so surprised themselves. "Anyway. Inuyasha's fang is what I need to fix the Tetsusaiga." Totosai said as he walks into the room. Once inside, it's very hot in there. "Whoo, master Totosai, I never thought that you'd have such a hot place in this school." Miroku wipes the sweat off his forehead. "Don't come in here." Totosai glares at him. Miroku looks confused at this. "Why?" He asks him. That is until Inuyasha goes in with him. "Humans are strictly forbidden in here for obvious reasons." Totosai tells the monk. "You'll melt. Stay out here and keep an eye on them." Inuyasha simply tells him before he and Totosai close the door so that the heat won't spread throughout the room.

Back at the castle, Kagome is in the kitchen eating way more than usually. "Geez, Kagome, I never thought that you'd have that much of an appetite." Sango comments Kagome. Kagome gulps her food down her throat. "I bet your appetite was worse than mine." She counters as she goes to her next bowl. Sango giggles, "No not really, even though my pregnancy, I made sure I had a right amount of what to eat." She assures her. Kagome was about to take her first bite, but then her appetite vanished. Looking down at what she is about to eat, she lost interest. "hey it's nothing to be ashamed about. Every woman who've been pregnant had a different dish that they cannot stop eat, so you should eat what your heart's desire. Or more specifically, your baby's heart." Sango informs her gently as she rocks Kimiko while feeding her. Kagome smiles as she accepts her friend's words and continues on her eating.

Ayame walks carefully around the castle grounds, looking at the structure. 'Not bad of a place.' She smiles as she goes back into the castle and head back into her room. That was until she is about to enter the kitchen, and heard what Sango told Kagome about being pregnant and the cravings throughout the time. 'Her hunger is unbelievable.' She comments. "Hey, Ayame. Come on in and have some food." Kagome pops her head out of the kitchen door. Ayame gasps in surprise. "I was able to smell your scent and was wondering what you're doing." Kagome tilts her head. Ayame shrug her shoulders as she walks in with Kagome to see what she wants to eat. 'I don't know what I gotten myself into.' She begins to doubt herself as well as her own plan.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

The next morning Shippo, and Soten sneak into Kagome's bedroom. "Are you sure she's sleeping?" Soten asks as they snoop as quietly as possible. Knowing them, Kagome can hear even the slightest of sounds. "I think she is." Shippo replies in a whisper. They look up to see Kagome dead asleep on the bed. Usually it has both Inuyasha and Kagome sleeping on it, but Inuyasha is out of town to get Kagome's younger brother. 'This should be easy.' Shippo grins mischievously as he climbs onto the empty spot of the bed. He spots Kagome lying on her left side, showing her steady breathing. Normally, Inuyasha would have her in his arms. But it's just her for now. Shippo helps Soten get onto the bed. 'Let's get her.' Shippo keeps the smirk as he tries to find a sensitive spot on Kagome's body. Soten pulls out a feather from her sleeve. "Here." She passes it to him. Shippo glances his eyes to sleeping girl. "Shippo. What are you doing?" Kagome's voice halts Shippo's attempt to tickle her. Shippo loses his balance and falls off the bed. "Shippo!" Soten looks over the ledge. "I'm okay." Shippo rubs the back of his head where he hurt it. Soten turns around to see Kagome sitting up with her arms supporting herself. "What are you two doing here? It's dawn." She rubs her tired eyes. Shippo hops back onto the bed. "We know. Soten and I were trying to get you up for something important." He explains so far.

All Kagome does is cross her arms. "And you want me up at this time of the day? I'm tired as it is." She raised her eyebrow in tiredness. Soten gets to her, "I promise that when this is over, you can go back to sleep." She begs with her own puppy dog eyes to make sure Kagome obeys those words. "No." Kagome immediately declines as grabs the blanket and tries to go back to sleep. Soten and Shippo look at each in disbelief. "Honestly, Kagome. Couldn't you just spare your time to come down to see what we did for you?" Shippo begins to beg more seriously this time, hoping his plan works in his favor. "Please go away you." Kagome sticks her clawed hands and cracks them. Just seeing them made Shippo and Soten flee the room and closing the door behind them. With the door close, Kagome smirks triumphally as she looks at her claws, "Works like a charm." As she goes back to sleep.

Outside of the bedroom, Shippo and Soten pant as they run down the hall and into the kitchen. Inside Sango is feeding her daughter. "Ok, what did you two do his time?" She looks at them disappointedly. Seeing them panting like that made sense that they did something that the kids weren't really supposed to be doing in the first place. Before either of them begin to explain themselves, The door opens up to reveal the queen entering. "Good morning, you guys." She smiles warmly as she tries to figure out what to have for breakfast. "Shippo and I wanted to go get Kagome up for her surprise baby shower." Soten starts off her explanation. The Queen smiles. "You two should know better." She looks at them with a smile. The two kids look up at the queen confused. "What do you mean by that?" Shippo asks innocently. Queen Ai begins making them breakfast. "When I was pregnant with Kagome, my husband Hige would always try to pull pranks on me to see if my mood swings would get the better of me. But it didn't work." Ai remembers her times.

Shippo and Soten look at each other. "Mood Swings?" Soten asks this time. Queen Ai places their plates down in front of them. "It's when either Kagome is happy, angry, sad. At any given moment, her mood would change in an instant. So I hope you two learned your lesson." She explains to them seriously. Sango giggles at the scene. "She's right you two." She agrees with the queen. "When I was pregnant, I didn't want Miroku anywhere near me. But being that way made him run off to Inuyasha and Kagome until I calmed down. When I heard that they went here, I was worried so I had Kirara take me over here, and surprise him with this little bundle of joy here." Sango remembers her times. Kirara hops onto the table. "Hey there, Kirara. You hungry?" Sango pets her demon cat. Kirara purrs with a mew. "I'll take that as a yes." Queen Ai digs into the cabinet and pours some cat food for her. "I had no idea you had that here. As a matter of fact, I haven't seen a cat at all." Sango realizes the scene.

Queen Ai chuckles, "We did have one, but he passed away a week before you guys arrived. I'm just surprised we still have this here." She sadly smiles. "So what was the cat's name?" Shippo asks her. Ai turns around after closing the cabinet. "His name was Buyo. He was chubby cat growing up. We tries to put him on a diet, but he was a stubborn one. So we had to shorten his amount of food when he was fed." Ai answers the question calmly. Sango knows that behind those eyes are sorrow. Losing a loved one isn't going to go away in a short period of time. "Kagome had no idea. And Sota wasn't around when Hige and I got Buyo. He couldn't resist my puppy eye look to get what I want." She grins playfully in the end. Sango looks down to her daughter. 'I just hope I don't get into that situation when she does that trick.' She sighs as she keeps on feeding her baby.

Ayame walks carefully down the hall. She spots the kids fleeing a bedroom. 'That must be Kagome's room.' She speaks in her head. After a few minutes, she walks to the bedroom door. Before she is about to tap the door, "Ayame, come in." Kagome stops her from knocking. 'Ok didn't see that coming.' Ayame thinks in surprise. She opens the door and enters shyly. Like any royal family bedroom. There's the top of line wardrobe, the finest furniture, the décor is to die for, and of course there's the bed where the princess sleeps. "You wanted to come, your highness." Ayame speaks nicely as she see Kagome sits up in her bed. Kagome stretches her limbs. "No not really." She jokes in responds. She even pads a spot by her. Ayame follows her directions and sits down on the bed. "Is something bothering you?" Ayame asks first. Kagome shrugs her shoulders. "You saw the kids running out of my room." She looks up to the red head. Ayame nods, "Yeah, I did. Was it something they did to make you upset?" Kagome sighs. "I was trying to keep on sleeping, but my sense of hearing got the better of me and mad me scare them out of the room. And now I feel bad for doing it." Kagome honestly answers the girl.

Ayame had to think this carefully. "But it shouldn't be a problem. I'm sure they'll apologize for what they did." She cheers her up. Kagome smiles a little. "I will later one. But for now I need to eat. Care to join me." Kagome gets off her bed and puts on her robe. "Maybe later. I'm not hungry." Ayame respectfully declines the princess' offer. "Oh come on. I insist." Kagome laughs as she takes Ayame's hand and runs out of her bedroom. Ayame never expected this. 'Oh well. If you can't beat them, join them.' She thought the old saying.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11:**

Totosai guides Inuyasha into his hidden cave beneath the school. "Why bring me down here?" Inuyasha has his arms crossed. Totosai looks over his should, "Always so impatient. Even your father was just like that. It's no wonder you get his personality." He comments as they come to a metal door. "What's in there?" Inuyasha leans one side to get a better look of the door. "This is where I forged your sword." Totosai simply answers as he opens the door to reveal what's inside. From the looks of it, it's a room with pliers, an anvil, and a hammer. "Who do you think forged the Tetsusaiga in the first place?" Totosai jokes as he looks closely at the fang he yanked out of Inuyasha's mouth. Even a few minutes ago, Inuyasha is doing his best to hold his painful whimpering with his own pride. "Obviously you." He answers him.

Totosai gestures the sword. "I just need to improve your sword's strength. Hand it over, young one." He demands the hanyou. Inuyasha grunts as he willingly, yet stubbornly hands over the sword to the old geezer. Once unsheathed, Totosai closely looks for any damage on the blade. He presses his hand along the edge to see if the sharp end will cut him, not the he minded as all. "Hmm, so far you've done quite well with it, I'll tell you that much." He honestly gives his results so far. Inuyasha isn't worried so far for what he is told. "So why re-forging it? Why my fang?" He asks in an uninterested tone in his voice. "Did it ever occurred to you what made Tetsusaiga so powerful in the first place?" Inuyasha looks down the weapon on the floor. From the looks of it, the rusty appearance would be make it that not a single person would want to use it all. "It was forged by my father's fang?" He guessed the question.

"Precisely, Inuyasha. With his fang, your father made it possible to hide its hidden powers when being used by a human. If a demon were to take it, its barrier prevents it. And since you have both of your parents' heritage, it gives you its permission to wield. You see, whenever you have the urge to protect someone, you feel its purpose to release its full potential to defeat your enemies who would be a threat." Totosai explains the sword's purpose. Inuyasha had no idea throughout the time that this one sword is a one of a kind. "So then, why yank my fang out? Is it running out of power?" He asks in real worried. Totosai looks down to the fang. "You can say that. But it's okay. But it has its limits." He answers casually. Inuyasha raised his eyebrow to show he's confused.

Totosai laughs at the scene. "Looks like you're lost on that fact." He tells it like a joke. "Anyway. There's a time that Tetsusaiga is getting too much what it can handle, and it can actually hurt the wielder." He explains to Inuyasha. "So it kind of absorbs other demonic energies." He assumes to the older guy. Totosai. "Afraid so. Your father was very concerned that any given moment, Tetsusaiga would absorb so much that it can break from within." He warns as well. "You father was very powerful back in his times that he just wanted to make sure that when you were born, he made sure that Tetsusaiga to suppress the demonic soul within you wouldn't go on a killing spree" That last sentence made Inuyasha widen his eyes like saucer plates, "Killing Spree?" He's now in shock. Totosai shows a frown. "I hate to admit it, but yes. I was told that Tetsusaiga was like a seal from within. It's like a bottle with water. That water is your demon blood. If by any chance that the bottle breaks, in other words your sword, that blood will spill thus allowing it to possess you into a murderous being. So you must take my warning very seriously from now on, Inuyasha. If you ever part yourself from your sword, you will transform and when you do you won't be able to tell who's a friend or foe." He looks down in shame.

Just hearing that stuff has really freaked out Inuyasha big time. Never in his entire life would he ever thought that such a being would coexist within him. "So I should never speak any of this to my friends or Kagome." He murmurs this time. Still taking all of this horrible advice. "That's up to you if you want them to know about this. I'm just saying that in the near future that there'll be a moment that such a catastrophe would happen upon you personally that could make you lose your mind and you'll won't remember a thing when it does." Totosai tries to his best to lighten up the mood but from the looks of what he just told Inuyasha isn't helping at the slightest.

"So is there any way to prevent such an event?" Inuyasha begs the old geezer. Totosai didn't see this coming. What happened to the stubborn, impatient guy he know so long ago? "Even I try to re-forge the Tetsusaiga I cannot guarantee it'll work in your favor." So much for that. "If that's going to have to be it, I'll be careful from now on." Inuyasha vows out of the blue. Totosai didn't expect this side from him. "I'll hang onto this so that if that time comes, you know where to find me." He stands up and guides Inuyasha out of the private room but up to his office of the school.

Miroku is waiting as he does his meditation. A groan gets his eyes open. "What happened?" Kohaku groans again. "You were out for a few hours." Miroku calmly answers the question and he is about to resume meditating. "Really?" Kohaku asks in half surprised. The door opens to reveal Totosai and Inuyasha coming out. "Where have you guys been?" Sota asks excitedly when they finally came and close the door. "Private business, youngster. And I see Kohaku has come to." Totosai speaks serious. Sota and Kohaku look at each other. "Ok…so now what?" Sota asks. Inuyasha walks out the door. "We're heading back. Come on." He tells as he walks way up ahead of them. "Did something happened between the two of you?" Miroku asks curiously. Totosai shrugs his shoulders. "It's me to know and you to find out." He shoos the boys out and closes the door. As such they all follow Inuyasha out of the school building and back to the boat.

"So how long is gonna take for us to get back the kingdom?" Sota asks them as they get on. "I'd say about a day." Miroku answers casually as he unties the robes and hops on as the sails guide the boat away from the school and the view of it. About an hour later, Inuyasha just kept on leaning on the railing of the boat, lost in thought. "The evil presence within me. More like a second subconscious." He mumbles on and on. "Inuyasha?" Inuyasha turns his sight to Miroku with a concerned expression. "Did something happened while you were with Totosai a while back?" He leans on his back instead of Inuyasha who is leaning on his front. 'That's up to you.' Totosai's voice reminds him in his head. "What if I told that something _did_ happened and it wasn't good." Inuyasha narrows his eyes, hoping he might regret it later. "What happened?" Miroku asks intrigued. Inuyasha takes a deep breath. "It turns out that my sword is holding a subconscious within me." He starts off. Miroku nods, urging him to keep going. "Like a seal of some sort. If I were to ever let go of my sword, the subconscious will possess me." Inuyasha continues on. "So then what will happen if that were ever to happen?" Miroku asks him.

Inuyasha expression turns to a sheer fear. "I'd be a killing spree. I won't be able to tell who is friend or foe. If that ever does happen, you must swear to take this advice." He turns to Miroku with his bangs covering his eyes, "I want you to get away from me. As soon as possible of the slightest, you must get away from me. Not just you, but everyone else." He said in dead seriousness. "Even Kagome?" Miroku asks in worry as that grows. "Yes, even her. I don't want her to know about this either. I don't want her to see in such a state. She'd be traumatized. I just couldn't bear to have her see me like that." He begins to tremble. Miroku takes hold of his shoulder. "You have my solemn vow to protect your wife, and all of our friends from that." As such he leaves Inuyasha alone.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Sango is dragging Kagome down the hallway, "Come on, Kagome." She speaks in gladness as they stop in front of the door. "This is my mother's room. We're forbidden to go in." Kagome speaks in a state-of-fact tone. Sango giggles, "We know. But this time, she's allowing us to go in." She assures the princess. She knocks on the door. "Who is it?" The queen asks from the other side of the door. "I, Sango, have brought Princess Kagome on your requested appointment." Sango presents herself. "I see. Step right in." The queen immediately opens the door. Inside the assigned room is full of streamers hanging around from the ceiling, along with balloons that are blue and pink since neither of any of them know the exact gender of the baby.

"Oh my. What is all this?" Kagome awes in excitement. She smiles big time as she walks to take it all in. There was a table with a cake and a few gifts for Kagome. "Kagome, over here!" Shippo calls to get her attention. Kagome turns her sight to see a beautiful throne like the one that her parents sit in on special occasions. The more fascinating sights Kagome sees, the more she's speechless, not a single word to say. "Come on, Kagome. Take your seat." Soten takes her hand and guides her to her seat. Once seated, Ayame come up to her and place a woven crown on her head. "You look good with that on." Ayame compliments the girl. Kagome blushes with a smile as she turns to see Shippo and Soten heading over to the queen. "So Kagome, how's it been since you found out that you're pregnant?" Her mother asks. Kagome looks down to her still non bump belly. "Hm, well for starters, I've been having mood swings, and my hunger is out of control sometimes." She rubs the back of her neck in embarrassment.

"Ok, let's give you your first gift." Sango smiles as she picks up the first one from the pack. Kagome opens up to reveal baby clothes. "Aw so cute." Kagome could get rid of her smile of happiness. From baby clothes, to cribs, to diapers, as well as toys. "I'd be nice if Inuyasha was here. He would've enjoyed this." She closes her eyes, trying to stop her tears of happiness from pouring out. Shippo and Soten hop onto the arms of the chair. "He'll know for sure that you're happy as we speak. When he gets back with your brother, you two can finally have your family in peace." Soten said confidently.

All of sudden a bomb makes way into the castle's grounds. "We're under attack." A soldier shouts to the room. "We have to get you ladies to a safe place." He is about to do it until the front door is being banged on roughly. "It's the wolves. They're upon us!" Another soldier alerts this time. "Close the door now!" The other soldier orders around. The first one quickly closes the one of the room the party's in. The continuing bang has gotten the kids worried scared as well as the baby is crying. Sango is doing everything she can shush her down. "What are we going to do?" Soten asks the princess. That's when the queen ducks under the rug and pulls out a hidden door. "We're escaping this way, now let's get going." The queen gives her orders as they all get into the path underground, and closed it from the inside. "Make sure they don't find us." The queen orders the soldier as he covers the trap door with the rug.

As soon as the soldier covered the trap door, the door bursts open to reveal Koga with a few of his few wolves. "Where are the ladies?" He immediately asks the soldier. 'I can't let them know where they just escaped to.' The soldier thoughts nervously. Koga snaps his fingers as his wolves sniff the room to find their scents. "Say, this is something. Did I interrupted a party of

Somebody's?" He walks around to find the gifts and the balloons. "Judging by the stuff here, looks like someone's pregnant. How intriguing." He smirks as he picks up the scent of the seat. "So it's the princess who is pregnant. Figures. She was supposed to be my mate but that damned Inuyasha had gotten to her before me, and I cannot forgive that." He clutches his fists.

A wolf barks at Koga. "What is it?" He walks up to it. The wolf tries to move the rug but it won't budge. "What's with the rug?" Koga tries his best to move it too but it's not budging either. Koga looks around to make none of the items are on top of it. So far none of them are. Odd. "It'd be as if this rug has been re-enforced with a spell." Koga comments the rug. "Even though they were here, they must've gone into hiding. I want all of you to guard every entry and exit of this castle. As such I bet Ayame is with them as well." He grins as he walks out of the room, forgetting the soldier. 'Ayame? The red-head is one of them as well. This isn't good. I can't go after the ladies, and I'm not sure on what to do at this point.' The soldier thinks so nervously. He's a sitting duck.

Somewhere deep under the castle the ladies are walking through a damp hallway. "Ugh, this is disgusting." Ayame covers her nose. Not just her, Even Kagome, Shippo and Soten are covering theirs as well. "Well, no one has ever been down here so that's why it's filthy. "The queen retorted back to the red. Sango has to use a handkerchief to cover her baby's noise. "Do you know how long this tunnel is, your highness?" She asks, ever so worried about her baby's health. The queen takes second to think for that question. 'it's been years. I know that much.' She tells herself. "I'm not sure, Sango. But I assure you that we'll make it out to make sure Kimiko is okay. I know it's wrong of me to pick this way to escape the intruders." The queen apologizes for not thinking right. Sango takes hold of her shoulder boldly, "It's not your fault you picked this. We just had to go through the best way." She smiles to the queen. Kagome sniffs a little. "Do you smell something, Kagome?" Shippo hops onto her shoulder. She takes sniff again. "Yeah, smells like a wolf." She confirms it. That's when she turns around to find Ayame is missing. "Hey where did Ayame go?" Soten asks her. Shippo lights a green flame and let it fly around the darkness of the tunnel since there's no candles to light their way. "I don't see her anywhere." Shippo tells the group. "She might've gotten lost along the way. I'll go look for her." Soten volunteers as she goes on ahead. "I'll go too." Shippo hops off Kagome's shoulder and goes with Soten.

Ayame is just sitting in the dark, nowhere near the group that escaped through the trap door in the queen. "I can't be with them when they find us." She groans as she tries to figure out her next move without involving the group. "Ayame!" Soten calls from within the darkness. "Ayame, where are you?" Shippo shouts this time as they use their fire and lightning magic to light up the tunnel. The fire shines further to spot Ayame. "There you are." Soten smiles as they get to here. "Why did you not stick around?" Shippo asks as he keeps the fire lit up. That is until the fire got too close to her. Ayame whips her head away which reveals something that Soten and Shippo were worried about. "You're a wolf." Soten points at the pointed ear that was hidden in her red hair. That is until Ayame punches the ground to make leaves appear. "Don't move." She warns them as they try to get to her. The leaves surround the kids and trap them. "What are you doing?" Soten tries to break free with her lightning bolts to burn the leaves.

The ground rumbling alerts the group, "What just happened?" Kagome asks as she keeps her balance. Kirara transforms to let them get onto her back. Even her paws lit up the area around them. All of sudden Soten's scream is heard. "That's Soten. Let's go." Kagome runs back to find the little girl.

Soten screamed because her own lightning zaps her back. "What did you do to me?" Soten asks as she keeps struggling. "Whenever you try to use any of your powers to break free, it's reflect back at you." Ayame speaks to her. She turns to see Shippo doing the same thing. But then he pops into smoke is replaces with a leaf of his own. "Quite creative." Ayame comments the kid's trick. "And since he's running off in fear. You're coming as my hostage." Ayame reveals as her real form is white. After a few seconds, her hair is up in pigtail, with a thin bang with an iris in it. Her armor is skimpy but has a white furry pelt, and white fur cap down his back.

"Kagome!" Shippo cries as he sees them riding towards him. "Shippo!" Kagome grabs him in her arms. "Where's Soten?" She asks him. "She's been kidnapped by Ayame." Shippo answers frantically. The group gasps at that. "By Ayame. I thought that she was wounded." Sango tries to think back. "No I mean Ayame was playing us the entire time. She's a wolf." Shippo tells them. Kagome widens her eyes, "A wolf. I wasn't aware that she was one." She frowns for how she was deceived. "We need to get out of here." Sango tells them. Kirara sniffs the air and quickly turn her head in one direction. "Well it looks like that Kirara found a way out of here." She smiles. Kagome and Shippo get onto Kirara's back. It doesn't take long for them to see sunlight seeping through the wall. "There." The queen points towards it. Kagome smiles as she uses her claws to destroy the wall. "Stay here, there's no telling that Ayame is a spy of the group that attacked the castle." Kagome turns her head and takes a peek outside. She sneaks outside to look around the courtyard. For what she sees in front of her is a horde of wolves. One of them sniffs and turns towards to her. "Uh oh." Kagome gasps as she tries to run from it. "Well, well, well. What do we have here." A male's voice speaks from behind. Kagome turns around slowly to see it's Koga. All she knows it being knocked out from just seeing his straight in the eye.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Shippo gasps at the scene. "Oh no. Kagome!" He cries as he wants to go to her, but his tail was grabbed by Sango. "Let me go, Sango!" He demands her. Sango looks around. "Shippo, you must get Inuyasha here." She tells him quickly before the wolves surround them. Kimiko is so scare that she started to cry. Sango "Kirara, could you get Kimiko to safety. I'll stay here." She asks her demon cat. Shippo grabs a leaf, "Transform!" He popped into a bird as Kirara flies off with the baby. As he flew away, the wolves closed in on the girls. "Where's Kagome?" Sango demands one of them. "Oh she's right here." Koga grins as he has her out cold over his shoulder. "Release my daughter, now!" The queen demands him. "Yeah, uh, not happening. I have to thank Ayame for doing her job." He turns to see Ayame with a grin on her face. "Ayame, you traitor!" Sango shouts in rage. "Traitor? Maybe. But more like undercover." Ayame corrects Sango's comment. "So what? You deceived us. How could you?!" Sango shouts in real anger. That is until Koga's two henchmen jump from the roof and tie them down. "Nice work. Now lock them up in the dungeon." He gives his orders. "What about Kagome?" Ayame asks him. Koga looks at her. "Your task is to let her know what we're doing. And you're going to guard her, no excuses." He carries her to a secret room, that Kagome nor Ayame know where it is.

As the boat continues to sail back to the kingdom, something hit Inuyasha, like he senses something. "Inuyasha, what is it?" Miroku asks him quickly noticing the behavior. Inuyasha looks up ahead. "I don't know. I just somehow have this feeling that something happened." He tries to put it together but nothing seems to come up. "Inuyasha!" Inuyasha looks up in the sky to see a bird and Kirara flying towards them. "Shippo? What are you doing here?" He asks as Shippo and Kirara lands onto the boat. Kimiko whines. "Oh no." Miroku runs over to comfort his daughter. "Shippo, why did you bring my daughter with you?" Miroku asks as calmly as possible. Shippo pops back to normal. "Koga has taken over the castle. He's got Kagome." He answers quickly. Just hearing that made Inuyasha widen his eyes, "You fled." He accuses the kid. "No, Sango insists that I take Kimiko away from the scene. I had no choice but to get to you guys." Shippo response as he transforms into a balloon. "We have to get you guys back to the kingdom." He tells. Inuyasha, and Sota get onto him, while Miroku, and Kohaku get onto Kirara's back. As they flew as fast as they can, the only thing that keeps on coming into Inuyasha's mind was Kagome's safety. "Kagome, I'm coming. Just hang on." He growls as he feels the Tetsusaiga rattle like crazy.

Kagome comes to find herself wrapped around with chains to her wrists attached to the wall behind her. She tries her best to break free. "Don't bother, Kagome." Ayame speaks to her from outside of her cage. "Ayame. How could you do this to me?" She growls at her. From the looks of it, Ayame isn't too thrilled about this. "I had to do my duty." She simply answers the question. "What duty? All you did was betray us. After what happened when the kingdom got attacked, you waited to make sure your move. That's when I smelled it. A wolf. I knew since the beginning, about that scent, I know there was another one." Kagome speaks to recall for the times about the scent of a wolf. "Call it all you want, I cannot have you break Koga's heart after what you did." Ayame narrows her eyes. That's what made confused Kagome. "What are you talking about breaking Koga's heart? I never loved him at all." That's when Ayame opens the cage door walk up to Kagome and slap her hard on the face. "You have every right to break his heart. As well as mine." She screams. Even though Kagome wanted to stop the pain on her face, her hands wear chained so she can't so a thing. "As well as yours? What do you mean by that?" Kagome curiously asks. Ayame lowers her head as her red bangs cover her eyes. "Ever since you were locked in that tower, Koga was tasks to save you. I was around your age when he left home to do it. But little did he know that I had a crush on him that it broke my heart to see him with you. When he returned home miserably after finding out that Inuyasha saved you instead of him, I was happy. But Koga wouldn't give up. He wanted Inuyasha out of the picture to have you. But I was against it. Even Kikyo forbidden me from him. But now she's gone, I had to do whatever it took to convince that Koga is meant for me and not you." Ayame explains her story.

Kagome now understands where this is going. Ayame is trying to make Koga see her as an equal as him. But his own cockiness interferes with that fact that he just treats her like a child. "I see. Now it begins to make sense for once. To tell you the truth, I never really cared who saved me from the tower. I didn't really wanted a destiny to control my life. I'm just glad it was Inuyasha who did and not Koga." Kagome smiles sadly. "Koga should've chosen you of all beings. If it's someone who is to blame who gets to choice is Kikyo. True that in fairy tales, the fairy godmother is meant to guide the maiden the right path to find her prince charming. But this is no fairy tale…" Ayame glances her. "…But it's a terrible story that somehow got twisted for someone else's pleasure." She finished it. Kagome sighs, "So uh, do you know what Koga's objective was when he put me here?" She tries to get her to talk. Ayame stood up and locks the door. "I'm sorry Kagome, I'm under strict orders not to mention a single word about his objective." She answers darkly as she disappears somewhere in the dungeon.

Shippo and Kirara are flying as fast as they can back to the kingdom. "So, Inuyasha did you get Kagome's brother?" Shippo tries to break the silence. Inuyasha turns around to see Sota look up curiously. "Yeah, he's right here." Inuyasha answers pointing with his thumb. "Oh, so you're Kagome's brother. I'm Shippo." Shippo introduces himself politely. Sota smiles back. "Sota Higurashi." Sota gives his own. "How much longer are we to land?" Inuyasha asks Shippo to remain on the main topic. Shippo takes a minute to figure out how long it took him and Kirara to get them. "About an hour ago. So it shouldn't take us that long." Shippo answers as they keep on going. Inuyasha is way too impatient to wait any longer. "Inuyasha I bet your worried about my sister." Sota looks from the side. Inuyasha sighs deeply to calm down as in not freak out the boy. "Yeah. I'm worried about her. There's no telling what Koga could to her at this point." He turns to see Miroku with his baby in his arms with the same expression. 'I bet Miroku is feeling the same way about Sango. She's still too weak after giving birth to their daughter a week ago.' That was more than enough to make Inuyasha to lose his sight on the horizon.

"Inuyasha look!" Sota taps his shoulder to get Inuyasha to see where he's pointing. Up ahead is a black cloud. "What is that, Inuyasha?" Kohaku asks him. Inuyasha sniffs a bit. "That's not a black cloud. That's smoke. Hurry!" He shouts to the group as they stepped up their powers to get there quicker. As they get closer to the smoke, the view of the kingdom is getter closer to them. "I shouldn't be that long to get there." That's is until something comes flying at them. "Move!" Inuyasha shouts as he pulls out Tetsusaiga, "WIND SCAR!" He shouts as its attack destroys whatever it was. "You guys get to safety while I try to stop them." As such more of those things are coming towards them. "If I were to know any better, Koga might've infiltrate the castle's guards and catapults." Shippo explains how they'd be attacked all of sudden. Inuyasha keeps countering the attacks with his sword. "Anywhere we can land?" Inuyasha asks Shippo.

Knowing this is getting nowhere, the attacks are limitless depending on what is being used. "Down there!" Sota points at a cliff that is a blind spot that not even the castle can see them. "Okay." Shippo floats down to the cliff. Surprising enough, Kirara, Miroku, the baby, and Kohaku were already there as well. "Damn, I would never expect Koga to be this arrogant." Inuyasha growls softly. He turns around seeing everyone are so unsure on what to do next. "Kohaku." Kohaku looks up to Miroku. "Inuyasha, Sota and I are going to get to the castle undetected." He seriously speaks up. "I want you, and Shippo to take my daughter away from here. This is not a place for an infant to know such a thing." Miroku explains to them. Kirara quickly lets Kohaku, and Shippo with Kimiko in Kohaku's arms and flies away.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

When they fled out of their sights, Inuyasha looks over his shoulder to see the castle is beginning to smell like wolves, "No doubt about it. Koga has taken over the castle." He confirms it for sure. Miroku narrows his eyes to get a good look of the castle, "So do you have any idea on how to get into the castle?" He asks carefully. Inuyasha closes his eyes, perk up his ears to find the faintest of sounds from around the cliffs. "I hear drops of water in a cave." He answers as he opens his eyes. "Ok, so where is the cave?" Miroku raise his eyebrow. Inuyasha looks around the cliff to see an opening. "It's down there. Come on." They don't waste another second as they careful slid sideways the cliff's edges. The waves from the ocean crash onto the surface, thus making it difficult to fine their balance. "The sea should shroud our scents." Inuyasha speaks a bit after the path widens up for them to walk forward for once.

It didn't take them long to find the opening of the cave that Inuyasha said earlier. "Ok, so here we are in a cave by the castle. So what's next?" Miroku mocks the scene as he looks around the cave. He lights up a torch as they begin to walk in further. Inuyasha sniffs the cave. "So far the cave has been abandoned and then a few creatures begin living here." He tells Miroku what it is for other dwellers. "Ok…" Miroku doesn't sound convinced otherwise. He can see the stalagmites from the ceiling with the torch's light. But then something unfamiliar reaches Inuyasha's nose. "Hold on, we're not alone here." He stops Miroku with his arm to prevent him from going any further. A sound of footsteps are being heard in the distance. Miroku and Inuyasha hide behind a boulder after blowing out the torch so they won't be spotted. As suspected a person is walking up with torch with him. "Honesty, why would he bring the princess down here of all places?" It was female voice that complain. 'Princess? Kagome.' Inuyasha figured out who the person was talking about. He is about to go out of the hiding and tackle the female onto the ground. That is until Miroku stops him. "I got this." He pulls out a sutra. "Now be still." He quietly commands the sutra and it went straight to the female, stopping her in her tracks.

Miroku and Inuyasha come out and walk up to the female. Miroku relights the torch from the female's to get a good look at her. Surprisingly enough, it was Ayame. "Who are you?" Inuyasha asks rather rudely this time. "What you two doing here? This is a forbidden area." The female replies back despite being paralyzed. "Forbidden my ass. Now tell who are you, and what have you done to Princess Kagome?" Inuyasha growls. The female notices right away who the two are. "Inuyasha, and you're Miroku." She confirms. "I'm Ayame. I'm here guarding the princess." She answers the question finally. "Good, Miroku make sure she stays put." Inuyasha takes the torch and goes up ahead to find his wife. "Will do." Miroku nods as he stands by the girl on a rock.

Kagome moans as she comes to, still locked up with her wrists on chains attached to the wall. "I don't know how much longer I can stay in here. It's not healthy for my baby." She points out even though she can place her hand onto her abdomen. She tilts her head to let her bangs cover her eyes as they begin to let new tears fall. "Kagome!" A voice shouts out. Kagome flexes her ears to figure out who it was that called out to her. "Kagome, where are you!?" That was Inuyasha's voice. "Inuyasha!" Kagome shouts as loudly as she could. She has no idea how she's been down here to begin. A few more seconds passed, and Inuyasha found her. "Kagome." Inuyasha undraws Tetsusaiga and slashes the cage bars like butter. "You're not are you?" Inuyasha cups her cheek, and wipes away the tears. "Oh Inuyasha." Kagome smiles happily as she wants to hug him. Inuyasha tilts his neck to notice the chains on her wrists. "Hold on, let me get these off of you first." Inuyasha uses the sword to do the same thing with the cage bars and frees her. "Kagome. Are you or the baby hurt?" Inuyasha asks her in concern looking around her body for any bleeding or any type of injury. "No. I'm okay. Inuyasha, Koga has taken over my home." Kagome replies as she recirculates the veins to allow the blood to flow in. "Yeah, on my way back, a few cannonballs were fired at the boat. If it weren't for Shippo and Kirara, they managed to get everyone off the boat an take your brother, Kohaku, and Kimiko to safety." He helps her onto his back. "We also need to find Soten. She was captured by Ayame when we were trying to find a way out." Kagome adds in as Inuyasha walks carefully, know that Kagome is weak for being locked up for a while.

As they turn the corner, Miroku kept watch on Ayame who is still paralyzed by Miroku's sutra. "Ayame." Kagome growls as she grabs the girl by her top. "You are going to tell me where Soten is." She flexes her out her other hand with threat in her voice. "Sorry, Kagome. I have no clue what I did with the kid." Ayame declines anything. Kagome flexes her hands. "That's just load of crap. I know Shippo told me that you captured. Now tell me where she is." Kagome growls more dangerously that is made Inuyasha back away. Even with her claws so close, on the neck, Ayame had no choice but to surrender. "She's back in the castle's dungeon." She admits defeat. Miroku comes up and removes the sutra. "And one more thing." Inuyasha speaks this time. Ayame looks up to him scared. "You are going to tell Koga that I'm not going to let him get away with this. I'll get him, and kill him." He warns her. All Ayame does is nod and flees the cave.

Just as Ayame said, the queen and Sango are in the castle's dungeon. "I've never been locked up before." Sango gloomily said. That's when Queen Ai sits down by her. "Neither have I. But I know we'll get out of here somehow." She speaks with enthusiasm trying her best to lighten up the mode. Then a new voice gets their attention. "Release me now!" It shouts. Soon enough a wolf humanoid looking being throws her in. "Soten." Sango runs down and picks up the girl. "You okay?" She asks the little one. Soten nods, "I think so. It's all a trap." She tells the two. The queen frowns. "Yeah we know that much." She crossed her arms. "It was Ayame who did this to us. She's working with Koga." Soten gets more out of her mouth. Sango and Ai looked at each other. "You mean the red head?" Sango is now disbelief. "So now to get out of here." Ai looks up to the ceiling, but no windows are there. Sango looks at the door to see that it's no good either. "Well there's one thing to find out." Sango said as she comes up to the wall. "What are you going to do?" Soten asks her curiously. Sango presses her hand onto the stone walls, "This." She answers as she crushes her hand onto the wall. Like she said, the stones broke apart. But that managed to hurt her hand in the process. She holds in her cries. She doesn't want them to know how sensitive she is when getting hurt. "Not to worry, Sango." Queen Ai walks up to her. That's when she spotted something useful. "I'll take care of this." As such that's when Ai uses the same technique that Sango used but with more force thus breaking the wall more. "Wow. You're amazing." Soten compliments to her. Ai smiles down to her. "Now you know where Kagome gets her fighting skills from." Sango shows envy in her eyes. 'Showoff.' She shakes her hand to get rid of the pain.

Sota, Kohaku, Shippo and Kirara land safely in the forest outside of the kingdom. "So what's the master plan, Kohaku?" Sota asks the older boy while holding the baby. This is not safe for the baby to be in this. Not in this chaos. Kohaku look around the area. "There's not much we can do at this point. There's wolves all over the area. One slip and they'll get us." He replies back. There's nothing they can do at this point. Kirara flies up to the top of a tree. They get to the top branch to get a good look at the castle. "This isn't good, Kirara." Kohaku states and the feline growls in agreement.

Shippo and Sota sit on a rock. "Sota, how come you never visited your parents?" Shippo tries to start a conversation. Sota looks down to the fox kid. "I wanted to, but I just couldn't. I don't want to go to them and show them that I'm a failure. Besides, talking about royalty is prohibited. If that were to come out, then the other students wanted to take advantage, which is why I didn't want to be popular." Sota answers as easy as he could for the young. Shippo just nods. "I feel your pain, Sota." Shippo looks up to him. Sota looks confused. "What do you mean by that?" He asks the fox. Shippo hops off the rock. "I didn't want to be popular when I was with the others. Even though I wanted to be alone, they wanted to take advantage of me and I have to prove it them that why I did not to be popular." Sota tilts his head. "Such as…" He wants Shippo to keep going. "Well for starters, being alone you don't have to be with others who want to mess with your life, have secret hatred, or spread rumors." Shippo tries his best, hoping it's worth it. "But being alone can lack of socializing with others." Sota gives his advice. "It's up to that one person who wants to be with others or stay on his own.

Soon enough Kirara lands, "A wolf is heading this way." Kohaku tells them. Sota hops on with Shippo on his shoulder. "Let's catch it." Shippo gives an idea on how to catch it. Ayame begins running in the forest. "Kids these days are insane." She complains so far. That is until she's pinned down. "Please let me go!" She begs her capturer. "Wait a minute, you're Ayame." The other spoke in half surprise. Ayame looks up to see Kirara with her paws on her back. "Shippo?" She asks the kid. "Oh boy. We got ourselves a wolf." Shippo scored with a fist pump. Ayame doesn't know what is going on. "Kohaku, what should we do?" Sota asks him. Kohaku looks down to his niece in his arms. "Hold onto Kimiko. I've got an idea." He whispers as puts on his mask as he release a powder smoke onto the wolf. Ayame coughs, "This knocks out canines like her, once out, tie her up." Kohaku gives the instructions. A few seconds latter Ayame is out like a light. Sota and Kohaku wrap her up in chains. "So then what?" Sota asks Kohaku. "We'll have to see what Koga has to say about his woman being held hostage." Kohaku smirks in the end as they put her onto of Kirara's back.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

Inside of the throne room, Koga is sitting in the king's chair. "Lord Koga." One of the humanoid wolf demons bow down to him. "What is it, Ginta?" Koga asks in annoyance, not really interested on whatever his henchmen is going to tell him, "It appears that Inuyasha has returned to the kingdom." Ginta begins. But hearing that made Koga narrow his eyes. "How long ago has it been since he returned?" He asks trying his best to get his anger under control. Ginta takes a second. "About an hour ago. Our wolves are looking for them as we speak." Koga growls. "And what about Ayame? Knowing what happened, she failed her task on guard duty." Koga bangs his fist onto the arms. "No word on her whereabouts." Ginta replies. "Honestly, that brat doesn't know what to when she is tasked to do when ordered." He groans in the end. "So then what are your orders?" Ginta asks him. Koga gets off the chair and looks out the window, "I want you to retrieve Ayame for attempt of treason. I want her immediately." He gives his order. Ginta nods, "Right away." He replies as he leaves the room. Koga shakes his head, "Honestly, Ayame, what are you trying to pull here?"

That night, Kohaku, Sota, Shippo, and Kirara are sitting by a camp fire. Ayame comes to, she finds herself tied up to a tree. "What's the meaning of this?" She asks the group in front of her. "Ah you're away finally." Shippo starts off. "Why do you have my tied up? I'm not a threat to any of you guys." Ayame tries to speak innocently. "On the contrary, you have Soten locked up. So that's a threat as we speak." Shippo points a finger at her. "As well working for Koga. That's a threat right there." Miroku adds in. "So what were you doing out here anyway?" He turns to see her. All Ayame does is look down in shame. "I just wanted to make Koga see the truth for what happened." She tells them the story.

 _Flashback_

 _A young Ayame is running in the woods, away from something that is chasing her. "Get back here you brat!" A female voice is shouting out. Ayame's foot gets caught in a tree root and falls to the ground. "Please, I didn't do anything!" Ayame speaks in fear in her voice. The female appears in front of her. "Fairy God Mother Kikyo." Ayame managed to speak. "You have no right to say my name." Kikyo frowns at the child. "What do you want from me?" Ayame asks her in the eye. Kikyo fiddles with her wand. "Well for starters, you try to take this from me without permission. No one is allow to use this wand under any circumstance." Kikyo stares at the girl. "As such, your punishment is death" Kikyo is about to cast an evil look. "No one can save you from this." Kikyo is about to blast magic from the wand._

 _A brown wolf boy jumps in front of her. "Please don't!" He has his arms open to protect her. "Koga." Kikyo isn't too happy to see him. But some of the magic hit him on the head. With that, Koga falls onto the ground. "Koga!" Ayame cries as she tries to wake him up. But nothing. "I'll let him live." Kikyo begins to bargain. "One condition though. Ayame looks up to her, "What is it?" She asks her. Kikyo looks to the unconscious boy. "He will be my son, to rescue a princess later on in life. As such, you will not to interfere with this task." Kikyo shows a projection of the future. Just seeing it made Ayame sniffles. "And when he does, he will forget about you." Kikyo looks back to the little girl. Knowing that she'll be sad, "I'll accept it." Ayame nods with tears in her eyes. 'I wonder what will happen if that task wasn't completed?' Ayame hopes in her head._

 _End of Flashback_

The group feels sorry for her now. "It's no wonder you've been doing everything you to get his attention." Kohaku speaks out as he rocks his niece softly. "So far, Inuyasha got Kagome first, and now Koga wants to get rid of them." Ayame nods. "Yes. All I want to do is to do whatever I can to open his eyes to the truth. But being so caught about the failure, Kikyo gave him another chance to proof that he is worthy, she put her fate into her own hands to make sure it's foolproof and everything. But you guys managed to pull it off, and defeat her. And for that, I'm grateful." Ayame tells them. Shippo walks up to her. "So then you're not our enemy." He walks around the tree and melts the chains to release her. She stretches her arms, but then she smells something. "Wolves are coming. We have to get out of here." She is about to lead them out but a lot of wolves have surrounded them. "Ayame." One of the wolf demons spoke. "Hakkaku." Ayame spoke, not too thrilled. "Koga has given us orders to bring you to him. "And if I refuse." She challenges him. "He wants you alive." Hakkaku explains to her seriously. "And as for you." Ginta looks at the others. "I'm not informed about what to do with you." He admits to them. Which is true. "We've a baby with us. Taking us to him would be a bad idea." Miroku explains to them.

Hakkaku sniffs and confirms that there is an infant among them. "Very well. I'll spare you for the time being. But if you interfere with our mission, we won't hesitate to take you to him." Hakkaku handcuffs Ayame's wrists, and escort her to another wolf demon. Once the wolves left the scene, the group are not sure on what to do from this point on.

Somewhere else on the outskirts of the city, Inuyasha and Kagome walk along the darken woods. That is until Kagome drops to her knees. "Kagome, you okay?" Inuyasha kneels down by her. "I'll live. I'm just upset for what Ayame did while you guys were gone. How could I be so foolish?" Kagome bangs her hands onto the ground. Inuyasha looks back up to see what's up ahead. A twig gets his immediate attention. "Show yourself!" He gets in front of Kagome ready to draw Tetsusaiga. "Inuyasha? Is that you?" A familiar voice calls out to them. A few figures appear in the moonlight to reveal who are they. "Sango, mom, Soten. Oh thank kami you're all okay." Kagome runs and hugs her mom. "I was so worried about you, Kagome." Ai hugs her back. Sango sees Inuyasha. "Hey, where's Miroku?" She asks anxiously. "He and I split up when we got back. He should be alright as we speak." Inuyasha replies as he gets to his wife. Just seeing such a sight has made Sango envious about it. Not just that, but her baby. There's no telling what's going with her.

A demon cat roars made everyone look up to them. "Sister!" Kohaku waves at her. Sango sighs in relief, seeing him safe and sound. "Kohaku, you're not hurt are you?" She hugs him. Kohaku shakes his head. "No, we're all okay." Miroku answers the question. Sango shed tears as she runs to him and hugs him like no tomorrow. "And Kimiko?" Sango asks him, seeing that she isn't in his arms. "She's right here." Soten comes up to her and gives the baby to the mother. Sango sniffles as she holds her baby close to her.

"Mother." A new voice that Kagome doesn't recognizes turns around to see who it was who spoke. There stood Sota. "Sota. My, you're so big. Kagome, meet your younger brother." Ai gestures Kagome. Kagome nervously walks up to them. "Hello, big sis." Sota smiles towards her. Crazy enough, even though that Sota is younger than her, he's an inch taller than her. "Hello, little brother." Kagome smiles back. At last they hug each other. That sight made their mother shed tears with happiness, so happy that her two children are together at last. Not just her, but everyone else.

The wolves arrive at the castle gates with Ayame bind up. "Open up." One of the wolf demons lower down the gate to allow access to the group. 'So this is it.' Ayame frowns as she is being tugged by the bounds on her wrists. As she looks up to the castle, being conquered by the wolves, there's no escape for her this time. They enter the throne where Koga is tapping his fingers on the armrest of the throne. "We have completed the mission, Lord Koga." Ginta speaks first. "That's King Koga." Koga corrects his status. Ginta bows, "My apologies." Koga stands up and walks up to them. "Leave Ayame to me. I'll be talking to her, personally. Leave." He gives his orders. With that, Ginta and the others leave the two alone. When the doors closes, Koga glares at Ayame, seeing her with sheer disappointment. "Ayame…" He begins to speak with such anger.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

As the group surround the campfire, none of them seem to have anything to say at this point. So far, Sango is in the woods, feeding the baby while everyone else is just eating whatever the boys were about to get from the river. "So how was it to get my son?" Queen Ai tries to start off a conversation within the group. "It was something, I'll tell you that much." Miroku replies after swallowing his bite. "What was it like?" Kagome asks Inuyasha, knowing he was there with Miroku, and Kohaku. Inuyasha holds his chin, "Well, for starters, Sota wasn't much of the fighting type." He honestly spoke. Kagome turns to her other side to see Kohaku nods proving that her husband is telling the truth. "Okay." She admits defeat for the time being. "Did I miss anything?" Sango asks as she sits down on a log by Miroku. "Nothing as of yet." Shippo tells her. "How was the trip to the school?" Sango turns to the group. "It turns out that your brother had a reputation." Miroku smirks at the boy. "Oh, like what kind of reputation?" Sango leans forward to see her brother turns red in embarrassment. "Like I said…" Kohaku covers Miroku's mouth to stop him from whatever it was he is about to say. "Let's just say that it's a reunion of some sort." Kohaku speaks this time. Sango shrugs her shoulders as she begins eating her dinner.

Sota holds his forehead, "The nerve of that guy." He groans feeling embarrassed himself. "Ok come on, Sota." Kagome turns to him with a smile. "Whatever you did over the years, you shouldn't be embarrassed for it." She pats on his shoulder. But he shakes his head, "No. I just wasn't seen as a worthy student. I've tried everything I could to be noticed, but it never worked in the end." Sota turns his head away. "Oh why is that, Sota?" Ai asks him. "He was the one who took all of the attention." Sota points to Kohaku accusingly. That made Kohaku glares at him, "Hey, I never wanted the attention to begin with, I was just great at what I did and fled the school." Sango widens her eyes in surprise. "You fled the school?" She sounds disappointed. And for that Kohaku leaves the group and goes into the forest. Sango gives Kimiko to Miroku and goes after him.

Kagome frowns at the scene. "I didn't see that coming. What about you, Inuyasha?" She turns to him. "About what?" He looks at her. "What about your time there? Did anything else happened?" She questioned more specifically. Inuyasha turns to his sword. 'I'd rather not tell her the secret.' He declares. "So far, I met Totosai, the headmaster and he forged my sword from my father's fang." He tells her that instead. Kagome leans to the sword. "Really? I never that he was the one who to do that." She smiles to him with amazement. "So what are going to do from this point on?" She asks not just him but to other guys. That's when Miroku and Inuyasha looking at each other to see who can come up with the best answer to Kagome's question. "We don't know to be honest. For what's been going on ever since we came back." Inuyasha speaks first.

That didn't go well. "What about Ayame? That white wolf girl?" Inuyasha asks her. Kagome narrows her eyes. "For what she did was to play us. She's working for Koga." She growls as she balls her fists. Not just that, but also shaking. Inuyasha places his hand on her. "I know how you feel. But I'm certain Koga isn't too thrilled about me saving you before he did." She nods as she leans onto him. Inuyasha wraps his arm around her to let her know that he's her. But that one secret he couldn't tell her. He just couldn't bear it to expose it to her if it were to ever happen.

Outside of the castle, a slap is heard. "What am I going to do with you, Ayame?" Koga looks at her seeing her on the floor, holding the part of the face where it got slapped. "What does it look like, Koga. I did exactly what you told me." She tries to stop the pain on her cheek. Koga begins walking around her, "Like hell you've done exactly what I told you what to do. Care to explain why Kagome was free from her cell? Your task was to remain there, and you fail." He explains to her more clearly this. "Is it because you were outsmarted by someone stronger than you?" He begins to tease her. "Come to think of it, ever since Inuyasha and his friends returned I was certain that he'd be the one to save her so easily. It's no wonder you failed so quickly." Ayame growls in frustration. "They caught me off guard. I had no idea they came out of nowhere." She tries to explain herself. "Like hell. You were foolish enough to be in that spot and be taken down so easily. Seeing how you were spared was beyond me. That's why I had my henchmen come after you and bring you here to me." Koga crosses his arms throughout that statement. Ayame is about to stand back up. "And as for your punishment is being in the dungeon for the rest of your life." He declares in the end.

"You're wrong, Koga!" Ayame shouts as much as she could. Koga didn't see this coming. "Oh, care to enlighten me?" He asks her sarcastically. "You were bewitched by Kikyo. Don't you remember what she did to me if you to live." Ayame pushes herself up. "I don't recall making any deals with her. All she did for me was to be happy, to rescue Kagome, and marry her. But that damn Inuyasha destroyed my dream and I'm going to make them pay for that." Koga refuses to admit defeat. "Tell me this, Koga. Is it what you wanted or was it what Kikyo wanted?" Ayame asks seriously this time, to convince him. Koga narrows his eyes to take it. 'Was it what I wanted, or what Kikyo wanted?' He repeats that question over and over. "Back then Koga, you had one dream to make it come true. Do you still have that or did you forget all about it?" Ayame speaks up. Koga growls is about to strike her until the window from above them breaks and a white wolf leaps down in front of Ayame. "It's been awhile hasn't it, Koga." The wolf was four times bigger than the two demons. "Oh god." Koga is now scared.

Sango walks through the forest, looking for her younger brother, "Kohaku!" She calls out hoping for a reply from him. But no, not a single one within the dark woods. "Kohaku, please answer me!" Sango speaks more desperate by the minute. She sees the outside of the trees and goes over there to see. As she assumed, Kohaku it just staring off the cliff overlooking the sea. "Oh thank Kami I found you." Sango runs to him. Kohaku isn't showing his optimistic look this time. More like an embarrassing one. "What's wrong?" She comes to his side. All he does is look the other way. "It's not like Sota joked about what happened back there." She tries to cheer him up. "But he's right." Kohaku intervenes. "Sango, I'm a disgrace to our father. Ever since I was born, father would always wanted us to follow in his footsteps, to keep our tradition alive." Kohaku balls his fists the entire time. "But he didn't believe in me. That's why he sent me to that school. So I could learn better than from him. I don't get it why you were so good, and I'm just a slacker." He lowers his head to cover his eyes with his bangs.

Sango knew how gentle he was when they were kids. As such, being the older one meant that she had the potential to became a great demon slayer when the time came. Her brother has a point. It's hard to accept defeat, when trying so hard. "You should know that being a demon slayer is not easy at the least." She agrees with him as she places her hand onto his shoulder to comfort him. "When I first picked up the Hiraikotsu, I had to know how to throw, and catch it at the right time. I never gave up as I practiced every day to improve the movement of the weapon. You must know that each weapon is meant for a different person." She advices him. Kohaku looked down to his own weapon. "I've done everything I can to improved mine, but it's been in bad shape lately and I believe that this next battle, might be its last." He frowns. Sango looks down to the sickle end. Like he said, the sickle has a few dings, and a crack starting from the center of the side. It's most definitely going to break apart at any moment whenever it's being used. "Let's go back." She suggests him. Kohaku didn't had to argue with her as they return back to the their group.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

The giant white wolf demon towers over Koga with a look, that Koga is petrified from within. "I'm highly disappointed in you, Koga." He growls so far. "What do you mean? I've done everything I could to get to where I am now." He tries to protests the big wolf. "That's not what I'm talking about, pup." He heads back to Ayame's body and get her onto his back. "What Ayame told was the truth Koga. And over the time you became so arrogant that you became ignorant to realize what was important since the very beginning." The wolf walks around the throne room to observe the structure. "So far, you've been badly influenced by a witch." He turns around to see him in the eye. "You mean Kikyo? She was the fairy God mother for crying out loud. She's no witch." Koga tries to protest, avoiding the subject. "Silence! For a long time Koga, I've been observing for she really was. She feeds off the happiness from her victims. And ever since she was defeated by King Hige, Her spell should've been broken by then. So tell me this, Koga. What is it that makes you happy?" The wolf asks rather rashly this time.

Koga has to think hard. Throughout his life, when he was a pup, he wanted to be strong, for his friends, for his clan. But then along the way, a person had to mess it up and make him do her bidding. 'I was a pawn in her own game.' He comes to realize that. "If you don't fix your mistakes, then you will never be king of this kingdom. As such, it was never yours to begin with." The wolf growls viciously as it leaps out of the castle's balcony. Koga growls as he balls his fist. "That bastard. I have not made one mistake." He pounds the floor below restoring his pride.

The wolf lands in front of the cave outside of the kingdom's borders. He gently lies down and let Ayame lie by his fur. "Ayame, are you going to be okay?" Another wolf comes from somewhere in the cave. Ayame opens her green eyes to see familiar beings. "Oh, I'm just out of my mind, aren't I?" She rubs the sore spot. "Why would Koga do that to you in the first place?" One of them asks her as they begins to bandage her wounds. "I've tried to reason with him, but he might still under Kikyo's influence about being obsessed with Kagome." Ayame growls in anger. "But like what gramps said, He's too arrogant and ignorant for that matter. I'm not met for him anyway." She hangs her head down to shadow her eyes with her red hair. Then another giant wolf comes forth, "Ayame, darling." It spoke so comfortably. Ayame looks up to see it's her grandfather, the white wolf. "Even if he is still too stubborn to listen, we'll have to give the kingdom back to Princess Kagome's family. Seeing what he did is unacceptable, and we cannot allow him to keep him going like this." He rubs his head onto hers. Ayame know that this would happen eventually and it's not going to change. "So what's the plan then? So far Koga and his henchman has taken over the kingdom so far." Ayame summarizes the events that's happened so far. Her grandfather looks outside to see the land.

"For now, we're going to let Ayame rest up until the time come." He walks back to Ayame to see her falling asleep due to the impact she received from Koga. "You two need to find Princess Kagome and inform her about our plan." He turns to two little white wolves of his pack. "Right away." The first one bows as he and the other leaps out of the cave to look for the princess. "I just hope we're not too late." The grandfather mumbles as he remains at the entrance.

Inuyasha and Kagome choice to rest up in one of the huge tree branches. "Inuyasha. Do you think I failed this kingdom?" Kagome looks through the leaves of the tree's canopy. Inuyasha places his chin onto her head. "Not even the slightest." He replies to her sweetly. Even though it sounds smoothing. But inside there's doubt. "You're just saying that, Inuyasha. You know that as well as I do." Kagome smiles through her sadness. "I just wish we weren't in this mess." She leans into his embrace. Inuyasha can't seem to find the right words to cheer her up at this point. "No. I mean it. It's not that no one's perfect." He tries so far. Kagome sighs, "I agree about that." She turns her sight to him. "I mean everybody tries there to find the right things to complete their lives, but if something doesn't go their way, they'd do whatever they to change it for the better." She explains the meaning of a person's life.

Inuyasha couldn't agree with her more. His life wasn't perfect, not even the slightest. Ever since he was a child, he was never accepted into anything, but anyone. He was always alone. Even when going to the school, no one wanted to be with him at all. Luckily Totosai guided him onto the right path to the life he'd prefer to live. And then Miroku, Sango, Shippo, and Kagome came into the picture, and he had to think on how to change the way of his life. And by the looks of it, Inuyasha's life changed for the better. He looks down to see Kagome sleeping safely in his arms. He smiles and decides to follow Kagome's example to rest up for the next challenge that's up ahead.

Koga is back in the throne room, hold his head while sitting in the throne. "What was I thinking?" He groans in frustration. "I didn't mean to hurt her." He shuts his eyes. _"Tell me this, Koga. Is it what you wanted or was it what Kikyo wanted?"_ It's Ayame's words that popped into his head _"Back then Koga, you had one dream to make it come true. Do you still have that or did you forget all about it?"_ The last one can't leave him alone. Koga opens his eyes to see the moon light shining into the stained glass to cast an image onto the wall above him. He stands up and to get a look at it. The image is showing a man and a woman holding a child in their arms, singling at family. "That was my dream." He murmurs. "To have a family with Ayame." He frowns to what he did to her earlier. "I cannot run this kingdom like this. Not without Ayame. Oh man what have I done?" He drops to his knees and screams. Finally realizing what he has to do, but that also means the unforgivable. Killing Kagome and her friends, revealing his madness for power to perfect his life,

* * *

A/N: Hello fellow readers, it's been a few weeks now and I've noticed that there haven't been any reviews from anyone. It might be disappointing to me, but I still write despite all of that. So I would deeply appreciate it if you could review this story. The more reviews, the more encouraged I get to update it.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

While Kagome and her friends are asleep, Inuyasha had to stay alert in case if any of Koga's henchmen try to pull something on them while their guard is down, except Inuyasha's. He looks down to see Kagome sleeping soundly. He soften his eyes to see her safe and sound in his arm. Even though he wants to press his hand onto her flat belly, she's sleeping on her one side, which made it impossible for him to do it. 'Maybe next time.' He sighs. But then a scent of a wolf gets his attention. At first he thought it might've been one of Koga's henchmen, but it wasn't his. More like Ayame's. But then again, they never encountered her crew, just her so far.

As carefully as he could, he scoops up Kagome bridal style, and hops off the huge tree branch and lands gracefully onto the ground. He looks behind him to see the others are sleeping. Inuyasha has to come up with something not to wake Kagome up. He spots Kirara in her huge form, and decides to set her there. As soon as Kagome is laying is places by Kirara opens her eyes to see what's going on. Inuyasha shushes quietly to let her know that Kagome needs to lie against her because something is coming this way. Kirara nods and goes back to sleep.

Once she is safe, Inuyasha looks in the direction of the wolf's location. Soon enough, the wolf appears before him. Surprisingly, it bows to him. From the looks of the wolf, it was a white one like Ayame's. A humanoid wolf demon, no doubt about that. "Lord Inuyasha." It speaks respectfully. Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. "Who are you?" He asks quietly and suspiciously. "I'm from Ayame's clan, and I'm here to give you this message." It replies as he stands back. "A message of what exactly?" Inuyasha crossed his arms. "I'm here to inform you that you must defeat Koga as soon as possible." He tells him seriously. Inuyasha scoffs, "I know that so far. But why being so worried and serious though?" He asks the wolf. "The thing is that Koga has gone mad. After striking Ayame down, he can't seem to control his emotions or his life. That's why you must defeat him once and for all." The wolf explains the situation.

But then something crossed Inuyasha's mind. "How was it that were able to get this information in such a short amount of town? From the looks of it, it's quite a long distance to where we are right not." He states the location to the Kingdom. "Quite smart, my lord. But a friend of mine was already there when it happened, and gave me the information so he can go back to my hideout to protect Ayame is Koga is to attack her again." The wolf demon smiles sadly. "I see. So got any idea on how to get back to the castle? For what I know is that the Castle has the best defense of the Kingdom. I'm surprised that Koga was able to slip through." Inuyasha holds his chin. "True. I thought that maybe Queen Ai would know a better way to get back into the castle without being detected by Koga's henchmen." The wolf tries his best to come with an idea of his own.

The sun is beginning to break through the horizon. "I must go, I don't want to be seen in the daytime. Farewell." The wolf disappears from Inuyasha's sight. 'I don't know if I should trust him.' As usually Inuyasha cannot trust a complete stranger, even those who are part of someone's group they know so far. He turns around to get back to the group. Upon arriving, he still see them sleeping. He turn his sight back to Kagome's sleeping form. He comes up to her and moves a few strands of her hair away from her eyes. "Inuyasha." Kagome moans as she flutter her eyes. She starts to sit up, but Inuyasha helps her to get her back onto his chest. "You ok?" She asks him as she is still tired. "Go back to sleep. It's still early." Inuyasha whispers quietly, "What about you?" Kagome struggles to keep her eyes open. "I'm fine." He assures her as she falls back to sleep.

It didn't take long for the rest of the group to wake after Kagome fell back to sleep. First one up is Queen Ai. "Morning, Inuyasha." She said warmly as she begins to make breakfast for them. "Hey. Did you ever wandered off on your own outside of the castle walls?" Inuyasha begins to conversate with her. Ai holds her chin for a few seconds, "I did a couple of times, even though I was caught off guard. But yes, I have." She honestly replies back to him. "Why?" She asks him now. Inuyasha had to think of what the white wolf told him earlier. "Do you know any secret tunnels that might connect to the castle?" He asks hoping for a yes in return. That's when the queen frown. "There used to, but a few trespassers used it to sneak into the castle and we had no choice but to get rid of them."

Ok so that didn't work for Inuyasha's idea on how to get back to the castle. "What about you? You were able to find Kagome by the time you came back with my son." She remembers that part. Inuyasha nods. "True, just right before Koga attacked the ship, Miroku and I had to get to the shore and there was a cave going under the cliff, and that's where I found Kagome." He answers the question and decides to wake Kagome up. "Hey, time for breakfast." He whispers into her ear. Kagome opens her eyes to see that her mother and Inuyasha are the only ones awake for now so far. "Did I miss something?" She rubs her tired eyes. "Nothing in particular." Her mother answers while she concentrates on the meal. "Ok, but then why was there a wolf demon here earlier?" She crossed her arms. 'Damn.' Inuyasha mentally cursed. Knowing her being a hanyou like him, she was able to pick up the scent of the wolf demon who was with Inuyasha earlier. "It was with Ayame's group." He calmed down so no to freak Kagome out. "So? Why did he come here?" Inuyasha is about to answer when the rest of the group gathered around the fire. "He told me that Koga has gone mad." Inuyasha answers the question, expected of what kind of reactions would be like from everyone else.

Sango goes first, "I see. I knew that he was jerk, but gone mad. I cannot have my daughter go through a scene like that." She states out as she sees the baby just sleeping. "If we to take down Koga, we need to keep the baby away from there." Sango concludes it. The queen that she's not fighting material. "I think it's best that you men try to figure out a way to get into the castle, while the women have to keep the baby safe." She offers her idea. "Yes and no." Inuyasha agrees then disagrees. "Why respond like that, Inuyasha?" Sota asks him. "So far our first priority is to keep the baby safe. That I agree on. But the I disagree on who is doing what." He explains to him. "Ok, so what do you have in mind for that?" Kohaku asks him. Inuyasha looks around the group, figuring out the best tactic. "For Me, Miroku, Sango, Sota and Kagome will head back to the spot where I found Kagome. The rest of you are to take care of the kids." He tells them seriously this time.

As on cue, Kagome, Sota, Miroku and Sango head to Inuyasha's side while the kids are with Queen Ai. Sango hands off her baby to her. "Rest assured, Sango. I know what it takes to care for one." She smiles to her. And with that the two groups head two different directions, hoping that Inuyasha's plan works.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

As they gets around the cliff, Inuyasha knows so far that the shore is slippery due to the crashing waves splashing onto it. To make sure Kagome doesn't get hurt, Inuyasha gets her onto his back. "You said before that there was a cave around here?" Sango asks him so far. It's daytime so it shouldn't be that hard to see it. "Yeah it's just around this ridge here." Inuyasha responds as they get around carefully. As they get around the ridge, Inuyasha puts his arm out. "Hold on. We're not alone around here." Inuyasha sniffs the area. Kagome follows suit and tries to pick something out of the ordinary. "Inuyasha. It's Koga's henchmen. I bet they know we're here." Kagome tells him nervously. Inuyasha nods back. "So what's the plan? We can't go down there blindly." Miroku said seriously as he tries to come up with something. Sango observe for how the waves are crashing onto the shore a bit higher. "High tide. We have to get to higher ground." She explains to them. Kagome nods. "While I was in the cave, I spotted the tide coming in and I was worried I was going to drown." She shivers.

Down near the cave entrance, a two of Koga's henchmen are guarding. "What has gotten into Koga?" One of them asks. The second one shrugged his shoulders. "I have no idea. Yesterday he was just fine and now he's gone crazy." The first states. That's when the tide begins to come into the entrance. "Oh no. It's coming fast." The first one widens his eyes as they rush in further, finding high ground. As they find a spot high enough they leap up and watch as the tide makes its way. "Any idea when the tide will go out?" The second one asks him. "Do I look like the tidal guard? I'm not. I don't when it'll go out." The first replies in annoyance. As the water rises a bit higher, it begins to swish onto the spot. But that was a false sight. Can't standing this they made a run for it, out of the cave.

Just seeing that made Inuyasha and his friends look at each other, after just seeing such a sight. "Ok, is it just me, or did something worked in our favor for once?" Miroku speaks out first. "Seems like it." Kagome responds as they enter the cave while the tide begins to subside. Kagome, Inuyasha, and Miroku know so far about the layout of the cave, but not Sango. "Any idea which way it is?" She asks them. Inuyasha and Kagome sniff thoroughly, trying their best to pinpoint. "I remember that my cell was in this direction." Kagome answers as she begins to run in that direction. After a few minutes, Kagome finds the same cell she was locked up earlier. "Not long since you been here." Inuyasha said as he goes on ahead to find anything out of the ordinary.

Then when he stepped on something, a creak was quietly heard. "Over here." He calls out to them. He kneels and presses his hand onto the ground where the creak came from. Hearing it again. "No doubt about. It's a secret passage." Inuyasha lifts up the ground and load and behold a wooden door leans up to show a flight of stairs going somewhere. "We might as go in." Sango speaks as she goes in first. Knowing better, they follow her in. Only Inuyasha and Kagome could sniff up ahead to make sure which way is the right path. "Ugh, this is stifling." Sango groans as she tries to control her breathing. "We should be out soon, Sango." Kagome replies as she recognizes something up ahead. "Over there." She runs in the directions. "I know where we are now." She smiles as she turns around. Sango smiles back. "Oh yeah I remember where we are. This is the time when we had to escape from Koga's infiltration." Miroku and Inuyasha look at each other and then back to them. "So a lot has happened since we left." Miroku speaks his mind since Inuyasha didn't had anything to say about it.

It didn't take long for them to find the secret door that reveals them in Queen Ai's room. "Well at least none of Koga's henchmen are around." Kagome looks around the room, seeing it as it was the last time she and her friends were in. Inuyasha comes out and sniffs the area. "All I'm smelling is Koga's scent. No one else's." He tells her. He walks up to the closed door. "What are you doing?" Kagome comes up to her. Inuyasha shushes with his finger and opens the door quietly to take a peek through the gap. "Odd, I smell Koga all over the palace. I can't pinpoint where exactly he is." He answers her. Kagome sniffs too and pinches her nose. "Ugh, man. It'd be as if Koga has gone mad and wanted to mark his territory around my house." She shudders. Inuyasha took her word literally and goes out of the room. He takes a big whiff of Koga's scent and can tell that Kagome wasn't kidding. "We have to go find him. There's no telling what he's up to. Just smelling him all over has gotten me suspicious." They get out of the bedroom and head towards the throne room.

Along the way, they spot a few items and area that reeks of Koga's smell. "Kami, is it just me or does Koga got over his head to mark my house with his piss?" Kagome had to hold her nose. She couldn't stand it. "I'm not one to brag, but I'd do it better." Inuyasha snickers at his own joke. But that mad Kagome run up next to him with an angry expression. "Excuse me, Inuyasha, but my family's house isn't yours to mark." She runs ahead. "Oh really? What about your father? I bet he had to do it constantly to prove his point." Inuyasha counters. Kagome glazed at him. "Well excuse me for not being here 24/7, I hardly know what my father's scent is like so don't expect me to know it immediately." She hits him on the forearm and the she runs off.

Kagome finds the door to the throne room. 'He's got to be in there.' She spoke confidently, but before she grabs the handle, Inuyasha places his over hers. "No. Not yet. I bet he already knows we're here already." He turns around to see Miroku with a sutra, "This will make the door invisible on our side so we can plan on to get him." He throws it to the door and then it disappears. From inside the throne room, they widen their eyes to the scene in front of them. All over the room is blood stains. "I'm picking up Ayame's blood." Kagome tells them. "It would appear that she and Koga had a fight." She looks from their spot. "No, it's was one-sided that Koga beaten her terribly." He corrects her. "Not just that, there's a third scent in here as well." He opens the door to find a few paw prints in blood. "A giant wolf came in here." He look up the ceiling and can see that one of the massive windows have been destroyed due to the giant wolf's power. "But why would a giant wolf come in here?" Sango asks him as she takes a look around to see bundles of fur of brown and white. "I think the giant wolf is from Ayame's group to save her." Inuyasha tells her as he walks up to the thrones and can tell that Koga has been here, but not long ago. "Koga is on the run. We have to go after him." He draws Tetsusaiga and slashes the door to get outside. "Why are we going after him?" Kagome asks him as they begin to follow his scent. "From what the wolf who is part of Ayame's clan warned me that he's gotten mad over the obsession of having her as his mate." Inuyasha answers her quickly as they keep on going. "Then let him. It's none of our business to begin with." Kagome wants to stay out of this one. Inuyasha shakes his head, "No. When a canine demon goes mad, his mind is consumed with greed and he won't stop until he gets what he wants. He wants Ayame, but that's not the way it should go." He disagrees with her. "Why is that?" Miroku asks him. "Because for it to work, both the male and female must agree on their terms of mating. If one of them is unwilling to accept it, it cannot work. And since Ayame is out of commission thanks to Koga, I would believe that she doesn't want him as a mate." Sango answers that one. "But maybe Ayame might have something to snap him out of it." Kagome tries to find that silver lining. "Maybe, but there's no telling what's going to happen to her. If we don't end this soon, Ayame might be killed in the process." Inuyasha narrows his eyes. 'I don't like this one bit.' He said in his head.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

Back in the cave, Ayame moans from the pain she received from Koga. "You okay?" Her grandpa asks her worriedly. Ayame lies back onto the wolf's side. "What a jerk. Koga should've known better not to hit a girl, more importantly you, Ayame." One of the pups tries to cheer her as he lies by her. Ayame smiles as she strokes the pup's back to comfort herself. "He's just not himself. That's all. I know that deep down the Koga is still trying so hard to get rid of Kikyo's influence. I was only able to break through the tip of iceberg. Now it's up to him to break even further to be free." Ayame tells them. One of the white wolves stands guard at the entrance. "So what do we do here?" He asks the Bigger one. "For now, Let's take Ayame's advice. As well as help her recover. There's no telling what Koga couldn't be doing at this moment."

In one part of the kingdom, the queen is holding Kimiko in her arms while they are riding on Kirara's back while walking through the field. Kohaku and Sota are walking side by side like bodyguards while Shippo and Sota are in front of them. "So does anyone know where we are going?" The queen asks the group. No one in the group can come up with an answer. "All I can think of is that we're trying to hide from Koga's henchmen." She wonders out loud. Just hearing that made them think more clearly for what they're really doing. "That should be it. Being a field, its scent is supposed to cover our scent entirely." Sota agrees with his mother. That is until Soten sneezes. "Says you. I can't stand this stuff." She whines as she tries to clear her nose. "If you want you can go somewhere where your synesis are cleared up. You can be on the lookout for Koga." Queen Ai recommends the little girl. " I'll send a lightning bolt is something comes up." Soten shouts as she runs out of the field and into the woods.

Somewhere in the woods, a groan is being heard close by. "What the hell is going on with me!" It shouts from the top of his lungs. He begins shouting in pain. 'You will do as I say!' Another voice is speaking to him from somewhere. "I won't do it. Get out of my head!" Koga shouts back. "NEVER!" The Other voice refused." Koga just keep on screaming for the top of his lungs.

Inuyasha, Kagome, Miroku, and Sango walk out of the village. "Got any idea on where Koga went to?" Miroku asks the two. Inuyasha and Kagome sniff to find that fowling smell of Koga, "He headed southeast." Kagome answers so far. "We can't lose any more time." She runs on ahead. Inuyasha runs by her. "You shouldn't be doing this." He tries not get her involved with the upcoming event. "It's not that I'm trying to stop Koga from whatever he's going to do. I just have a bad feeling that something happened to him and we didn't even noticed." Kagome states out as she keeps on running on ahead. Miroku goes up to Inuyasha, "I agree with her. When we were back in the castle, I sensed an evil spirit around it." He tells him seriously, knowing for sure that there's a bad sign. Inuyasha nods as he runs up to Kagome. A shout gets their immediate attention. "That's Koga." Inuyasha tells them as they head in that direction.

Koga claws out at one tree branch after another he finds he's going in the direction of Ayame's location, he groans. 'Ayame. Please be ok.' He begs in murmurs as he comes to the outside of the forest. He looks up to see the waves for the sea roaring onto the cliffs. He looks beyond the horizon and sees the cave. He sniffs carefully and can right away that Ayame's in there. 'Ayame.' He groans as he steadies himself. "Koga!" A different voice shouts from somewhere. Koga leans onto a close by boulder. "Who's there?" He shouts back. A few seconds later, Miroku and Sango come out of the woods. "Oh it's you two." He narrows his eyes, not really thrilled to see them. "Koga, listen to me carefully, you're being possessed by an evil spirit." Miroku tells him seriously. "Like hell I'm possessed." He declines quickly. He covers his eyes with his free hand, "You will do as I say, you fool." A different voice speaks out of his mouth instead of his own.

Sango and Miroku widen their eyes, "Did you hear that, Miroku?" Sango looks up to him. Miroku digs into his robes to pull a sutra with a different symbol on it instead of his usual ones. "This sutra is to vanquish the evil spirit that lives inside of him. We have to hold him down for it to work." He gives his instructions. Sango knows how strong Koga is. "Need a hand you guys?" A familiar voice calls out to them. The two look up where that voice came from, and it was that white wolf from Ayame's group this morning. "Much obliged." Miroku smiles. The newcomer looks around, "Hey, where did your two hanyou friends gone to?" He asks them curiously. "Oh you mean Inuyasha and Kagome? Inuyasha has a hunch that Ayame would be in danger so they took a different route so that Koga wouldn't be about to smell them that easily." Sango explains to him. The white wolf nods back, ready to help to get Koga back to normal.

Inuyasha and Kagome are on the different route that Sango just spoke of. "Got any idea as in why we're going this way?" Kagome asks him as they maneuver around the rocks. "This is the only way that Koga wouldn't be able to smell us down here. It's our only option." Inuyasha turns around to make sure Kagome doesn't slip on the slippery shore. "Ok, but there's no telling when a slip up would blow our cover." She narrows her eyes suspiciously. They were making sure that they can sneak in through a way to get to Ayame and help protect her from Koga. Inuyasha look up above them to see the cave. "We just can't risk being spotted, now let's go." All Kagome could do is groan in frustration for she doesn't like this one bit. But she has to deal with it.

Sango and Miroku look at Koga carefully. Koga moves in more unusual way. "Help me." He begs quietly. The white wolf narrows his eyes, "He's trying to fight the spirit who is trying to control him." He explains to them. Sango nods. "Most likely. He's strong will, but there's something that he doesn't like. And that's when something important to him is being taken away from him." She tells them. That gave Miroku an idea. "So in order to make him to break through is to remind him how much Ayame means to him." He narrows his eyes before closing them. "This is my only shot." He is about to make his move until Koga opens his eyes. Instead of icy blue, they're glowing red. "I won't allow it." The voice responds to Miroku venomously. That made the trio widen their own eyes. "It must be the spirit who is possessing him. But then there's something else about it." Sango speaks to them. "What do you mean by that?" The white wolf asks him. Sango looks at Koga carefully. "Whenever that spirit is speaking through him, it's the voice that's familiar to me." She tells them. "And do you know whose voice it is that is speaking through him?" The white wolf asks her. "It's Kikyo's voice." Sango finally gives the answer. Miroku widens his eyes, "So it's her spirit that is inside Koga's body." He assumes to them. "Most likely." Sango replies. "So you figured it out. Impressive." Kikyo's spirit manifests herself. She looks like what she did before they defeated her. "I thought we beaten you with your wand." Sango claims to her angrily. Kikyo chuckles, "All you destroyed was a clone. I knew for sure that if I was defeated in the flesh, my spells would've stayed in effect on my subjects, particularly Koga." Kikyo explains to them.

Miroku narrows his eyes. "This is troublesome. We have to keep her away from Koga as well as Inuyasha and Kagome." He tells Sango quietly But Kikyo grins. "Ah, so the two hanyous are somewhere around her. I wonder where they could be." She tips her chin. "Over there." She points to the edge by the cliff. "No!" Sango is about to run towards her. "But I cannot have you interfere with my grand plan." Kikyo snaps her fingers as glowing binds hold Sango down by her arms and legs. Miroku gasps, "Sango." He is about to come to her, but Kikyo does the same thing to him. "Perfect for the two of you to stay out of my way. And now, for you , my dear Koga. I command you to kill your true love. Ayame." She glows and goes into Koga's body.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

Inuyasha and Kagome turn the corner of the cave's entrance. "Ayame? Are you in here?" Kagome calls out. "She's here." Inuyasha tells her immediately as they walk further in. As they keep on going, Inuyasha stops all of sudden. "Wait. Something's wrong." Kagome looks at him confused. "What do you mean? You just said that Ayame's here. And now you're telling me that something isn't right." Inuyasha raises his arm in front of her before she could take a step. "That's not what I mean. Ayame is here. It's the other scent that got me suspicious." He tells her.

"Kagome? Inuyasha?" The white wolf's voice calls out there. "Oh it's just you. Is Ayame ok?" Kagome sighs in relief. The white wolf nods, "She's okay. I was able to smell a scent that's isn't right." He looks at the cave's exit. "That's just what Inuyasha said." Kagome exclaims. "Geez, thanks." Inuyasha crossed his arms sarcastically. "I'll go see how Ayame is doing." Kagome runs in that direction. Just when disappears within the cave. The unusual scent is heading their way. "Looks like the being is coming to us." Inuyasha is about to take a fighting stance until the being comes in closer. "It's just Koga." The white wolf crosses his arms. "Ayame must die." Koga speaks out. That made the white wolf widens his eyes. "No way I'm going to let that happen."

Ayame begins to cough off blood, "Oh no. Ayame!" Her grandfather comes up to her. She keeps on doing it. "What's happening to her?" The elder asks Kagome. Kagome looks to see a huge bruise on Ayame's abdomen. "Koga's kicking must've done this to her. Getting that much force can make the victim vomit blood. Maybe internal bleeding." She explains to the elder wolf. "All the more reason to kill Koga." The elder declaims as he is about to walk away until Ayame subconsciously grabs his tail. "No don't." She begs him weakly. Kagome looks back to the girl. "It's not really him who did this to me. He's being controlled by someone." She tells him. "How can you be certain it was someone who is pretending to be him?" The elder asks her eagerly. "When I was with him, I sensed something wrong with him." She looks up to him. "How?" He asks. "His scent was being coated with a different one." Ayame explains to them.

"Where's Ayame!" Koga asks the group in front of him. "Like we're going to tell you." Inuyasha refuses to tell. Koga chuckles darkly. "I know she's here. Her scent is all over this cave. So don't even think about denying it." That's when Koga's blue eyes are black, without the irises. "Inuyasha." Miroku pulls out the sutra he used earlier. "Do you sense it?" He asks him quietly. Inuyasha sniffs silently and nods. "No doubt, It's her." He steps back to let Miroku do his thing. The white wolf walks up to Inuyasha. "What does he plan to do to Koga?" He asks curiously. "Miroku is a monk so he can tell when there's an evil spiritual being is lurking close by. And in this case, it's the evil spirit has possessed Koga." The wolf look towards Miroku and then to Koga. "Evil Spirit be gone!" Miroku moved so quickly that none of the others saw it coming. Without a second thought, the sutra was pressed upon Koga's forehead. The power zaps him as he begins to scream in pain. But not just his, another one is screaming in agony. The spirit begins to seep out of Koga's body and manifests in front of them. "That body was useless from the start." It spoke. The voice widens the group. "Kikyo." Inuyasha is dumbfound to realized that it was Kikyo this entire time that he had no idea how she was about to elude him.

"Impressive, monk. But that's not enough to stop me." Kikyo sneers at him. "Maybe possessing Koga wasn't a bad idea. I managed to manipulate him to make sure he forget about Ayame." She grins to see him pass out on the ground due to the impact from the sutra. "How dare you." A new voice speaks from beyond the cave. The figure comes in closer with someone holding her steadily. "Ah if it isn't the impudent wrenches." Kikyo comments the scene, Ayame and Kagome coming towards. "Kagome, I knew that you'd be able to sense my spiritual powers so I had to control Ayame in order to do my bidding." Kikyo begins to confess little by little. "But why?" Ayame manages to ask her. "Why would you do it? What did I ever do to you?" Kikyo clinches her fists. "Why? Why? It's because you got what you wanted. And where does that leave me? Absolutely nothing!" She shouts back her answer. "What do you mean by that?" Kagome asks her.

Just hearing that made Kikyo flare her aura. "You of all people took away what I wanted. And in order for me to get it back is to make you suffer. I managed to pull it off until you had to interfere. And for that I cannot let you live." She is about to charge towards Ayame. Ayame manage to push Kagome out of the way. "Ayame!" Kagome is about to get back to her, but Ayame has her arm out to show that she doesn't want anyone else to suffer because of her. 'I have no choice to accept my faith.' She thoughts sadly as she is expect the impact. A clash of bodies collide. But Ayame isn't hurt at the slightest. That is until a splash of blood lands on her cheek. Ayame opens her eyes to see that it's Koga's body over hers. "I'm relieved you're alright, Ayame." He smiles weakly as he collapses on her. Ayame manages to get Koga lying on his back. "Oh Koga. Why?" She whimpers as she shakes in fear. She didn't receive an answer. She shakes him, but Koga doesn't move on his own.

Back outside, Sango is riding on Kirara. "Sango, how was it that you were alone?" Shippo asks her. Sango tells him what happen. "I had no choice but to call out Kirara. Only she is able to hear me." She strokes her cat's ear in gratitude. "Well the bottom line is that you're not hurt." Queen Ai smiles at her. Sango smiles back. "What are we going to do?" Soten asks this time. That is until the scent of blood get to Kirara, Shippo, and Soten. "What is it?" Kohaku asks them. "I smell blood." Soten answers first. "And it's coming from where Kirara found Sango." Shippo explains more. "You guys go on ahead." Ai tells the demons. "Soten, Shippo. You stay here, Kohaku and Sota will heard over there." Sango tells the group. No one disagreed with her and did what they were told.

Inuyasha runs to Kagome's side. "You okay?" He asks her carefully as he helps her back onto her feet. Kagome nods as she look towards the duo of Ayame and Koga. All they can hear is Ayame's sobbing. "Koga, please. Don't leave me." She cries. Kagome lowers her head as she hugs Inuyasha. Inuyasha embraces her, knowing seeing this reminds her of her father's death. "Such a fool." Kikyo claims as she rises back to her feet, showing no signs of wounds anywhere on her. That's when the white wolf charges at her in rage. "How dare you." He howls as he able to grab her by the arm. Kikyo grins as she vanishes into the air. "What happened?" He looks around the cave. "It's witchcraft." Another new voice answers her. The group turn to see Sango with Sota and Kohaku with her and Kirara. "Sango." Miroku runs up to her. "You're alright?" He asks quite dumbly. Sango nods, "Yeah. I'm fine." Kohaku looks up ahead to see something. "Sister!" He calls out as he points to the duo. Sango widens her eyes. "Oh no." The entire group run over to Ayame and the half-dead Koga. "Not another step." Kikyo reappears behind Ayame and presses a knife on her neck. "Make one wrong and she dies along with her lover." She threatens them sinisterly.

* * *

Hey guys, sorry it took me so long. Maybe because of a few reasons, Writer's block. True. Hiatus: That too. But don't worry. I'll be writing more chapters throughout the month

InuyashasGrl26 X)


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

None of them made a move, not an inch. None of them could even come up on what they can do to prevent Kikyo to kill Ayame. Kikyo grins to the scene. "How pathetic you all are. Not a single of one can even comprehend for what' I'm capable of." She brags to them as she keeps the knife on Ayame's neck still. Ayame didn't seem to mind the scene she's part of. She wouldn't even mind being killed on the spot. In her arms is Koga who is half-dead from the looks of it. At any given second Koga would take his last breathe and leave this world, as well a broken hearted Ayame. 'Ayame…" A voice slips through his lips. Ayame opens her eyes to control them without bending her knife to allow the blade to cut her skin. "I'll be okay." He slowly raises his hand to caress her cheek, not even noticing the scent of metal of the knife that is being pressed against her neck.

Kikyo materializes another knife and pressed it against Koga's knife as well. "Too stubborn to die, I see. No matter. I'll make sure that the both of you die together." She tells them. Everyone else didn't expect Koga to come too. "How is it that he's alive?" Sota asks to no one, mostly hoping for any of them to give him an answer. "Wolf demons don't die by mere force of weaponry." The white wolf gives the answer. "But how?" Sota asks him. That's when something amazing happened. A glowing light emerges from Koga and Ayame's bodies. "What's happening?" Kagome asks in awe. So far she knows that she's not the one who's doing the glow. She looks around and no one else is doing it either. "That would be me." The voice answers her from somewhere else in the cave. Soon enough, a little orb of light appears in the middle of the group. It begins to grow bigger. "Such a scene to observe." It spoke from a woman. The light shines brightly as it reforms into an elderly woman. From the looks of it, it's a female warrior, with long black hair and elegant wardrobe. "Kikyo, you should knew better not to take a life." She scolds at Kikyo.

"Lady Midoriko." The white wolf exclaims in relief. "Oh there you are Kiba. I hope you did your mission I sent you out to do." She smiles at him. "I have." Kiba smiles proudly. Midoriko smiles back at him and turns it into a scary look. "And as for you Kikyo. For what you've done to endanger these people, I'm afraid that you left me with no other choice." She walks up as Kikyo tries to make a run for it. But she didn't leave the scene as Midoriko snaps her fingers to make a barrier appear around Kikyo and trap her. "Serves you right for trying to betray the magic agreement." Kiba barks at the prisoner.

Kagome blinks her eyes, "Magic Agreement?" She speaks out. Midoriko turned around and blushes in embarrassment. "Oh where are my manners. My apologies. I'm the master of magic Midoriko. And it turns out that my student here tried to use the stuff she learned for her personal gain and possibly evil purposes." She turns around to see Kikyo banging inside the barrier. "Honestly, Kikyo you've gone too far." She then turns to Koga and Ayame. When she stands in front of them, she kneels down and places her hands and they glow to the already glowing duo. Upon the impact, Koga and Ayame open their eyes to see what's going on. "You two will be ok." She smiles as she stands up. "Kiba." She calls out to the white wolf. Kiba immediately came to her side. "Yes?" He looks up to her. "Do you want to be their companion?" She smiles at them. Kiba looks up to them. "I'll be their companion. That is if they allow it." He replies back honestly. Koga looks down to the white wolf. "I don't see why not." He grins as he strokes the wolf's head. Ayame does the same with a serene smile. As such Koga helps himself as well as Ayame up onto their feet and want to stick around to see Midoriko is going to do.

Inuyasha feels Kagome getting out of his grip. "I've heard of you. You were the one who decided the faith of my family." Kagome speaks more seriously. Midoriko just stare at her. "Me. No I wasn't the one who did that." She replies with her own seriousness. "Really? From what happened to me, I was cursed to be a half dog demon. Inuyasha lifted the curse." Kagome crossed her as she showed her half demon features. Midoriko widen her eyes. "Half of that is true. You were born as a half demon because your father King Hige was a dog demon himself. I take it you were already aware of that information." Midoriko corrected Kagome. "What I don't understand is that when you were born, you should've been a half demon most of the time, but that one time you turn into a human." She holds her chin. "That's because I was a half demon during the night and a human in the daytime." Kagome explains to her. That's when Midoriko turn her sight to Kikyo. "Is that so? For when half demons are born, that method wasn't supposed to be happen. Only one specific time leaves them as a human." She explains the routine. "Really?" Kagome asks her. Midoriko nods as a yes. "And from what you told me earlier must've been Kikyo's work that altered your transformation."

"But what is this Magic Agreement you told us earlier, Lady Midoriko?" Miroku asks her. Midoriko smiles at the monk. "I was about to mention that. You see, for those who have unusual powers, like monks, priestess, demons, etc. There's an unspoken agreement that they must do whatever they can to keep peace to this land. Demons were just skeptical about it because they think that it's best that they take care of the agreement since they can live the longest." It made Inuyasha, Kirara, Soten, Koga, Ayame and Shippo to look at her intensely. "But then priestesses and monks came into the picture to prove that they are just as capable to help out with the agreement." Kagome, and Miroku look up to her as well. "We had to remain hidden from the public." Midoriko walks up to the barrier. "Anyway. Kikyo is going to be punished for what she did." As such she disappears with the barrier.

With Midoriko and Kikyo out of the picture, Kagome runs up to Ayame. "You're doing okay?" She asks her with concern. Ayame nods, "Yeah. I just didn't expect Lady Midoriko would come out of the blue. And it's a rarity for that to happen." Ayame states out to her. "What about that light that glowed on you and Koga earlier? Is that something you guys would do occasionally?" Inuyasha asks this time. Koga and Ayame look each other. "We don't have the slightest clue." Koga shrugs his shoulders. "Maybe it's the wolf's soul that called out." Sota speaks out, surprising everyone. "Wolf's Soul is a spiritual connection to contact the closest spirit in the area." Sota begins to tell them until An elderly wolf come in. "That was me who called out to Midoriko." He speaks up. Ayame runs up to him. "Grandpa. You shouldn't be up." She tries to hold him still seeing he's weaken greatly. Kagome comes up to him. "Don't worry." She presses her hands onto the wolf's forehead and glows her hands in a pink. Soon enough, the elder wolf growls pleasantly. "Thank you, Kagome." He smiles as he stands up on his own. "You three, we're heading back to the northern tribe." And such they leave the cave. When the wolves left, Inuyasha can sense odd coming off of Kagome. "We should get out of here." He tells everyone. No one disagreed with his decision and all did in no time.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

Queen Ai, Soten, and Shippo As sitting on a log while the queen rocks the infant. "Does anyone know when they're coming back?" Shippo asks as he swings his little legs back and forth. "I know they'll be back. Sango knows that she can't leave Kimiko away with us for long." She smiles down to the baby to make sure she's in safe hands. All of a sudden a snap of a twig gets the kids their attention quickly. "What is it?" Ai asks carefully to the fox demon. "I smell something familiar." Shippo responds as he opens up his hand to lit a green fire to show their surroundings. "It's okay. It's just us." Sango comes into the lightened up site and no doubt about that it was indeed Sango along with everyone else. "Oh thank goodness." Queen Ai smiles up and gives Kimiko to her, knowing fully she misses her daughter. "Did anything happened to anyone?" She asks them.

From the looks of it, everyone is unusually quiet. Neither of them can think of an answer for the queen. "Koga was freed from Kikyo's mind control." Kagome speaks first, knowing that her mother would notice how she said it. Just hearing that made the kids look at each other. "You mean that phony fairy god mother who tried to break you and Inuyasha when we got here?" Shippo asks her. Kagome nods not sure on how to tell a child on how it happened earlier on. Knowing this, Shippo and Soten were housesitting Inuyasha's house. "Yeah, it was her. I have no idea how she managed to survive that battle." Inuyasha responded back as everyone sit down on various spots around the fire.

No one said a word. "I can answer that for you." A voice speaks out of nowhere. As everyone look around to find out where it's coming from. Out of nowhere a woman appears in the middle of the group. Inuyasha instructively grabs hold of Kagome and hold her close, believing that the new individual is a threat to the group. "Rest assured. It's just me." It was Midoriko. "Oh it's you." Inuyasha sighs in relief and let's Kagome out of his grip. Midoriko snaps her finger to take out the campfire and then snaps her other finger to teleports the entire group back to the main hall of the castle. "Ok I didn't see that coming." Shippo comments the sudden technique. Midoriko chuckles lightly. "I didn't want us to be outside. I had to put out the fire and let it keep on burning. That's why I brought us here back the castle." She explains to the fox. "Ok, so what was it that you were going to tell us?" Shippo asks nervously this time. Midoriko nods, "Right about what I was about to tell you about Kikyo." She starts off.

 _Flashback_

 _A young Kikyo is working on something. "What are you doing?" Midoriko asks her student as she looks over the shoulder. "I'm trying to make a potion that will make any drinker to become beautiful." Kikyo smiles as she watches her potion begins to change color. "You should know better, Kikyo." Midoriko frowns at her. "What do you mean? Was it something I did wrong?" Kikyo feels disappointed all of sudden. Midoriko knows the rules about life. And it looks like that Kikyo is trying to make short cuts out of it. "More or less. Look, Kikyo. You should know better about the rules of life." Midoriko tries to get her attention, but Kikyo is too distracted with her potion experiment. "The rule applies that you mustn't interfere its nature." Kikyo replies back to the teacher._

 _So far Kikyo knows that part. "Okay, so then why are you making a potion that alters a person's appearances?" Midoriko tries to get her to get to the point of this conversation. "I just don't like how people are being picked on. So I thought if I made a potion to make them look better, they'd have better life." Kikyo explains the purpose of the potion. Midoriko deepens her frown. "Kikyo, you cannot just simply make something like that to make others happy. There's a saying that beauty is skin deep." She tells her seriously this time. "Yes I know that, Master. But it's the stubborn ones who won't admit it. They should know that they shouldn't be so arrogant." Kikyo narrows her eyes to the potion._

 _Having enough of her own student's ignorance of the lessons that she has taught Kikyo, Midoriko has no choice but to the do the unthinkable. With a snap of her fingers, the potion that Kikyo was working one vanished. "Hey!" Kikyo exclaims angrily. Midoriko look around the room and sees a few shelves that have other potion bottles with labels for various purposes. "This has to stop, Kikyo. And for the way you've been working on these potions, I have no choice but to ban you from this. This has gone too far." And with another snap of her fingers, the bottles vanished as well._

" _You can't do that!" Kikyo shouts in fury as she tries to prevent her master from doing anything else she worked so hard on. I can and I did." Midoriko looks back. "From now on, Kikyo you are never my student." Kikyo knew she that was too much of an irritating student. "Fine. Just wait, Midoriko. I will get even one of these day. And you'll be sorry." She shouts from the top of her lungs as she runs out of the hut. After hearing the slam of the door, Midoriko shakes her head._

" _I spend months looking for her. But even for my skills, I wasn't able to succeeded." Midoriko narrates her story. "But then I decided to become a traveler, hoping that somewhere has a magic shop. When I heard about the factory that I left after looking for Kikyo. I was informed that it was bought by another individual. When I returned, I never thought that it was Kikyo that would do such thing. I bet she persuaded the towns people about what she can provide them for what they're looking for." Midoriko frowns at the sight of her own factory being taken over by her student. "Just seeing my factory in such a state, I knew I had to do something to get it back. That's when she was defeated by Hige, she was only destroyed by her own magic. But she was very careful about being defeated in the flesh, she only send a copy of herself to make sure she wasn't killed."_

 _Midoriko just blended in with the crowd to see how close to Kikyo to find out what she did. When she spotted her with Koga and threatened Ayame, she knew she had to take action to prevent any further harm to them. "I was furious with how Kikyo would do dark manipulation on others to make them do their own bidding." She tells as her story continued. "And then there was something. When I found out the agreement with the group, I have to come up with something. So I had to find a white wolf. I was at a lost at first, knowing that white wolves are the purest of the canine species. It didn't take me long to find one, and have him to help Koga overpower Kikyo's spell. And then you guys came in and I was confident that he can also be helpful as so I task him on what I was planning on doing and then we managed to pull it off."_

 _End of Flashback_

Everyone were surprised to learn the truth about Kikyo's backstory. "I should've been more attentive to her work. She thought that she was going to help those in need while deep inside she just wants to be praised. I'm sorry about what she did to Koga and what he had to go through." She speaks in sincere about this. Inuyasha now knows what she did. "I am as well." He admits his own shame. Midoriko look at him "When I first came here, no one liked half demons here, so I drank one of those potions to became a human for me and Kagome so that way we can be accepted into the society." Midoriko nods, "I see. I must've stashed those bottles in that vault in the factory you got it from." She figured that out. "And Kikyo tried to take over of the factory while I was out of town." She turn towards Kagome. "I'm surprised that you managed to break the curse that was placed on you." Kagome just smiles back. "And now we have other things to discuss." She speaks in a straight face.


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

Everyone in the room remain silent to see what Midoriko is going to say to them. "First off, Queen Ai. Where is King Hige?" She as the queen. Ai shows a sad look. "He passed away a few days ago." She answers the question. Midoriko widen her eyes, "Oh, I'm sorry. I should've known that right away when I came." She takes hold of the queen's shoulder. "And I know by law that when the king passes on, the next king must be someone who is part of the family. And by the looks of it…" Midoriko look at both Inuyasha and Sota. "Only these two are capable of taking the throne." She speaks to them serious to them.

Inuyasha and Sota look at each other, expected on what to say to the woman who was speaking about them. "But for now, the queen has temporary control of the kingdom until the end of the month. So you two much decide on who should be the next king." She suggests to them before she disappears from them. Later that night, everyone is having dinner in the dining room of the castle. No one wants to say a word about the conversation that Midoriko said earlier. Inuyasha and Sota just stare at each other without them even knowing, hoping that they have anything to say. The silent treatment is getting on someone else's nerves. "Oh for God's sake." Kagome slams her hands onto the table hard. "For once, could you two try to say something about what Midoriko said? Mom can't rule this kingdom forever. We all know that." She shouts from the top of her lungs that she had no idea that she freaked out Shippo and Soten, who both grab hold of the queen's arms for comfort.

"Trust me, Kagome, we know how stressful it is on us." Sota finally speaks his mind. "Never in my life have I ever got to take such responsibilities. I'm just a high school student, a hidden prince in the matter, but there was a rule that not a single student to tell everyone else which part of the society they're in. If I told them I'm prince, I'd be either in good or bad position for what might happen to my family. That's why I didn't want to return here." Sota explains his reason why he stayed back at the high school. "But tell me this, Sota." Queen Ai speaks to get his attention. "Did you wanted to stay there?" She asks the question. Sota looks down to his half-finished plate. "There are times, I wanted to return home. But something kept me there. During the breaks, I stay put. I just couldn't do it. That is until Inuyasha came." He shyly smiles to Inuyasha who sat across the table.

Inuyasha nods, "Yeah, I just had to persuade him to get out of there. You know that place had some crazy stuff going on there. I was amused most of the time." He chuckles in the end. "What happened over there?" Shippo asks in excitement. "Let's just say it's insanely fun, if you ask me." Miroku answers casually this time. "Wow. Like sports, pranks, shenanigans?" Shippo widens his smile. Miroku and Inuyasha look at each other, "Just like what I said, 'Insanely fun'." Miroku nods as he resumes his meal. "I just can't wait till I go to high school." Shippo keeps his enthusiasm going, to keep up the mood around the room. Sango stands up. "I must excused myself, I had a baby to put down." She leaves the group. Noticing nothing else is being discussed, everyone decides to leave the dining room.

Way later in the night, Kagome is in his night robe, she couldn't sleep. She walks out to the balcony of her bedroom. Upon leaning onto the rail, she looks from the group of the village to the starry night sky. "You ok?" Inuyasha asks as he comes to her side. Kagome shakes her head. "I'm sorry I snapped at dinner tonight. I didn't know what came over me." Inuyasha raised his brow. "Is that why you couldn't sleep?" He asks her curiously. She just shrugs her shoulders, not really sure why she's outside. "I couldn't sleep because of what Midoriko said today." Inuyasha spoke a few seconds later for his reason. "I guess what she said was too much to take in." Kagome comments back to him. "No doubt about it. I know when we first arrived, your father wasn't fond about you being a half-demon because of me." Inuyasha leans onto the rail. "But in the end, he came to his senses to accept you into the family." Kagome takes his hand to hers. "Right now, we're in a position where the end must be chosen in order for this kingdom to remain the way it is." She leans onto his side. A cool breeze blew their hair in a lovely dance. However it sent a chill down Kagome's spine. Inuyasha wraps his arm around her shoulder and takes her back into their bedroom. "We better get back in before you catch a cold." He scolds her gently. He can tell that Kagome is half asleep, so he scoops her into his arms and places her softly onto their bed. He smiles as he closes the door to the balcony. No second is wasted as he gets into bed and wraps her in his arms to make sure she's safe and warm in his arms.

The following morning, Kagome opens her eyes due to shouting coming from outside of the castle. She grabs her robe and head out onto the balcony to see where it's coming from. She look around until she sees something from the castle's wall. "What's going on?" She asks no one in particular. "Sounds like a protest." Inuyasha replies as he comes from behind. "A protest? A protest of what?" She asks not that she's complaining. "We don't want half demons ruling this kingdom." The group shouts all at once. Kagome runs back into the castle, gets changed in a more appropriate outfit of her green floral robes. Inuyasha follows her idea and gets into his armor over his red robes.

Sota and Queen Ai are talking among themselves. "What's going on, Mom?" Kagome asks her. "It turns out that there's a protest." She obviously answers the question. "I heard them saying that they don't want half demons to rule the kingdom." She adds in the end. Kagome is about to open the main castle doors. "No way." Inuyasha takes her hand to stop her from opening them. "And why not?" Kagome looks up to him with an annoying look. "Think about it, Kagome. If we were to go outside, that group would come after us without a second thought." Inuyasha explains on what would happen if it occurred. "Don't worry, dear." Queen Ai comes to her. "I may not be in control forever, but as the queen of this kingdom, I'll assure you that this will end in no time." She smiles as she opens the door.

It didn't take long for the group to get to the tower over the gate. Queen Ai gets up to present herself to the townspeople. "My fellow citizens." She cries out to them to get the attention. For what she can down below her, are a few signs with a no symbols over the words 'Half-demons' on them. "I have appeared in front of you to get to the bottom for why you would protest." She calls out to them. "Half demons don't deserve to rule our kingdom." One shouts back to her angrily. Ai looks towards her daughter and Inuyasha. "As far as I'm concerned, you have no problems with my daughter who was cursed to be a half-demon. Not just her, but her husband, Inuyasha is also a half demon himself. Not just that, Inuyasha is part of a high society family. Do you have any clue on who his father was?" That made the people mumbles upon themselves, not sure what the answer. "I may not have the answer, but Inuyasha himself has it. So if you respect me, you have to do the same for Inuyasha himself." The Queen spoke adamantly to them as she steps aside to give Inuyasha room so he can speak his mind.

Inuyasha clears his throat before presenting himself in front of the crowd. So far he can sense how uneasy they feel about him. He knows that he has to answer the queen asked them early. "Thank you, your highness. Everyone, I know for sure you not comfortable about me when I arrived with Princess Kagome. I assure you that I'm a not to any of you. And for what the question, the answer is that my father is none other than Lord Inutaishou Takahashi." When he spoke that, the towns people immediately bow before, confusing him completely. He turns around the queen, "Why are they bowing to me. All I did was telling them who my father was." That is until Totosai comes up to them. "It's because your father was the one made sure they respect you. You see Inuyasha, your father was practically a god back then. But he made sure you carry his name. Whenever someone hears that name, they count on you to guide and rule them." Inuyasha turn to look outside to see the crowd still bowing down him.

"I'm flatted to be respected. I just didn't expected this." Then it came clear to him. "I see." He smiles in silent. "I know what I have to do." He turns to the crown entirely. "May I have your attention." He speaks to them. They raise their heads. "I may be the son of Inutaishou Takahashi, but I came to a decision for the fate of this kingdom." He turns around to the queen. "Bring him." He tells her silently. The queen knows what he's up to and brings up Sota. "Are you sure about this, Mom?" Sota asks her. The queen gently pushes him from the back to be by Inuyasha's side. "I hereby give Sota Higurashi, son of Hige and Ai Higurashi, the throne of this kingdom." Inuyasha speaks up to them.

With that being said, Inuyasha turns around to see a servant who is carrying a pillow with the crown that Hige used to wear before his passing. He smiles as he takes the crown carefully and turns back around to see Sota kneeling down on one knee, "Hope you made the decision, Inuyasha." Sota whispers to him. "Trust me, you'd do a better job than me. Besides…" He looks over the boy's shoulder to see Kagome smiling at him. "I have a pup on the way and I have to be there for them." Inuyasha smiles down. When the crown is placed on Sota's head, he stood back up. "All hail, King Sota Higurashi!" Inuyasha shouts out the new king. The crowd stood back up and applaud to him.

Later that night, Kagome is walking around the castle, looking for Sango. Trying to sniff her out, she couldn't get a whiff of her. "Where is Sango?" She holds her chin. "She went back home." Soten answers her immediately. "What do you mean?" Kagome comes to her level. "I mean, she, Miroku and the baby left the kingdom. They knew for sure they had enough excitement here, don't get me wrong." Soten explains to her. Kagome nods, "I see. I guess that whole wolf drama got out of hand for her and Kimiko's safety. I understand." Kagome smiles down to the kid and runs towards her bedroom. When Kagome gets into her bedroom, she can tell something is missing. "Where are my kimonos?" She looks around her walk in closet to see most of her kimono are missing. "Oh they're getting altered?" Inuyasha replies to her. Kagome places her hands on her hips. "Why would they be altered?" She asks him, looking a little irritated. "Isn't it obvious? Your stomach is going to get bigger and your kimonos aren't going to fit you." Inuyasha explains to her. "How rude." Kagome growls at him. "Hey don't get me wrong. I know a few of them will return to normal when the pup is born." Inuyasha walks up to her defensively.

"Really, Inuyasha? The least they could've done is just get me more simpler kimonos instead of the ones that are getting altered." Kagome shakes her head as she tries to see what she can wear for the night. "Don't worry. I made a few pit stops to get them." He winks as he picks her up after switching to her night kimono. "Are you sure you got that taken care of?" Kagome crossed her arms. "Without a doubt." Inuyasha responds casually as he lies her onto her side of their bed and onto his own.


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

The following morning, Kagome wakes up to find herself alone in the bed. "Inuyasha?" She asks around the room as she puts on her green floral robe over the kimono and sandals. She walks down to the dining room to find it strangely empty. She sniffs the area but she couldn't pick up her husband's scent. Her unconsciously wraps her arms herself, as she walks all over the castle grounds, and still no sign of him. 'Maybe he went into town.' She thinks as she can see that the town is back to normal thanks to her brother Sota becoming their new king.

Just having her brother back after not knowing him at all is one thing to take in. But having him to become the next king is another. Sure they're royal for sure, but had no idea about them being siblings in the first place. Not just that, Sota was in high school when Inuyasha and his friends Miroku and Kohaku went down there to retrieve him. Even though he's young, he can still get advice from their mother. It's hard to have Queen Ai to renounce her title, but she is okay with that. She knew this was going to happen sooner or later. And it did.

"So much has changed." Kagome smiles as she walks around town. She can tell that everyone is not afraid of her, being a half-demon. They just knew she's there for them. "Kagome!" A voice calls out to her. Kagome turns to see Soten running up to her. "Hey there, Soten." Kagome kneels down to her level. "Hey, no time to talk. I have to take you somewhere." Soten grabs her hand and does her best to guide Kagome through the crowds. "Where are we going?" Kagome asks the little thunder girl. "Sorry. It's a secret." Soten turns to face her. Soon enough they were out of the town area. So far they're back in the forest. "Why is this a secret? Does Inuyasha know this?" Kagome raises her suspicious, trying her best to figure it out quickly. "Sorry. I haven't seen him since last night. I've been told to bring you to the location."

Kagome looks up ahead to see a huge willow tree as its long weeds of leaves gives away a sight of privacy within its curtains. "This is where you need to go in." Soten tells her as she pants for using so much of her energy. Kagome silently sniffs the area. So far she can only smell the scent of nature around them. "You wait here, Soten. I'll be gone for long." Kagome sternly tells her as she turns around to see she zaps in lightning and disappears into the sky. "Ok, I didn't get dragged out here to be all alone." She groans as she walks carefully towards the tree. She lifts a few branches to get through and is amazed what's inside.

She finds herself in a natural spring with its waterfalls coming from the hill in the background. Not just that, wild flowers bloom within the peaks of sunlight. "Oh my. I never thought this would be here." She said to herself as she wanders further in. "That's because it's not." A new voice tells her. Kagome turns around to someone sitting on one of the tree branches. "So this is where you've been, Inuyasha." Kagome crossed her arms. Inuyasha leaps off the branch and lands gracefully in front of her. "You can thank your mother when we get back." Inuyasha looks around themselves. "I have to admit that is something I'd like to come to every other time we're visiting your family." He honestly smiles, admiring the beauty of the place.

"Really? I never knew much about what's around town. I guess being coped up in that tower for a long time must've not let me know more about it." Kagome kneels down to the flowers, smelling its fragrance. "This is the place where your parents met actually." Inuyasha tells her so far. "So I guess Soten wasn't kidding when she told me it was a secret. But then something bothers me." Kagome stands back up. Inuyasha kneels down to pick a flower and puts it in her hair. "And what's that?" He asks her while he does it. "How was it that I couldn't pick up your scent around the castle or the village?" Kagome asks him seriously this time, eagerly trying to get the bottom of it. Inuyasha widens his eyes as he pulls out something from his robe. "Oh, you can thank this thing." What he pulled out was a bottle of some sort. "What is it?" Kagome takes the bottle as she looks at it closely to read the label. "Nothingness. A fragrance that reduces someone's scent. Hmm, well I guess that's why you didn't want me to find you when I woke up. Not bad for having me go on a wild goose chase." She gives the bottle back to him. "Nah, it was something I wanted to try out, but because of that incident I had to wait till it was over so I can do it." Inuyasha explains to her.

Kagome stands back up. "So this is where my parents met?" she walks around even further until she comes to the waterfall. As she dips her hand in the clear water, she somehow felt something. Inuyasha sees the water beginning to glow and then enveloping Kagome. Soon enough the glow disappears all together.

"What was at of that about?" Inuyasha comes to her. Kagome looks at her damped hand. "I have no idea. All I did was dip my hand in and then all of sudden I felt a certain warmth." Kagome honestly replies as she stands back up. Inuyasha doesn't want to say anything else, so they decide to head back to the castle.

When they reach back, the gates were already opened for them. "Oh Kagome. Where have you been?" Ai runs up to her, scared that she lost her daughter already. "It's okay, mom. I was with Inuyasha. Why would you be so scared about me leaving?" Kagome assures her with a hug. Ai giggles, "It just make me think that whenever you leave, I get this feeling that I'd lose you forever." Kagome never saw that coming. Never in her life would her own mother would feel that. "You miss dad already do you?" Kagome figures it out so far. All Ai does is nod in sadness. "Mom I know how hard it is for us to lose him. But I know something that might cheer you up." Kagome smiles as she places her hands onto Ai's shoulders. "And what would it be?" Ai asks her daughter curiously. "It's not a 'what', it's a 'where'." Kagome corrects her question. Kagome turns around to see Inuyasha nods to let her know it's time.

Kagome takes Ai to where she was taken earlier that day. "Kagome, I think I know you're taking me." Ai said as they come to the entryway of the willow tree branches. Kagome nods as she opens the branches to let her first. That's when Ai realizes the area. "This is where your father and I met. This was our secret place." Ai's eyes begins to water, which alerts Kagome immediately. "Mom, you okay?" She runs to her side. Ai nods, "I'm fine, just reminiscing this place." She assures as she walks up to the same waterfall that Kagome went to. Kagome observes her mother's actions. Ai places her hand in the water, and so enough the glow that surrounding Kagome does the same to Ai. "I knew you'd be here." A familiar voice speaks around them.

Soon enough the glow that engulfed Ai begins to take form. In front of them Hige appears. "Hige." Ai covers her mouth in shock. Kagome just blinks her eyes, thinking that it's an illusion. "Oh Ai." Hige embraces her quickly. Thinking that she's not needed here, Kagome begins to step back, "Don't go, Kagome." Hige stops her. "Father…" Hige stops her with his hand. "I need you to do me a favor." He tells her gently yet seriously. "What is it, daddy?" Kagome asks automatically. "I need you to go back to the castle and bring Sota back with you. I'd like to speak with him." Kagome just smiles and does what she is told.


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

Kagome ran as fast as she could, but being careful due to her early pregnancy, she's not showing any signs of the bump. She rushes into the castle. "Sota!" She shouts from the top of her lungs. Inuyasha runs when he hear, "Kagome, what's wrong? Did something happened?" He asks her one question after another. Kagome pants a few seconds. "I'm fine, I just need to find Sota. Have you seen him?" Kagome grabs his shoulder to stand. I think he's in the gardens." Inuyasha sniffs around them, picking up on his scent. "Most definitely." She agrees as they head towards the gardens.

In the rose bushes, Sota can't put his hand on it, it somehow calmed him down. 'Being a king can be so hard for me.' He thought to himself as he walks along the gardens' many path. "Sota!" Kagome's voice calls out for him. Sota turns around to see her and Inuyasha coming up to him. "What is it, Kagome?" He asks her casually. "You have to come with me." Kagome takes his hand quickly, which kind of makes Inuyasha a little jealous but knows better that this is something with the siblings alone. "Going where?" Sota asks as he walks along with her. "Long story. Mom is there waiting for us as we speak." Sota tilts his head. "Mom is 'there' isn't she?" He kind figured it out. All Kagome does is nod as an answer. "I see. I know where it is." That's all Sota said before he runs off. Kagome just stood there. "Aren't you going after him?" Inuyasha asks her from behind. Kagome relaxes. "I know I have to do what my dad told me, but seeing Sota knowing what's going to happen, I felt like I had to give him some privacy for where's he going." She explains the scenario of the situation. Inuyasha couldn't argue with her. And so they went back into the castle.

Sota runs as fast as he could to get to the place he's most certain where his mother would be. After seeing the willow tree branches are hanging, he just knew he's there. As he stops he pants as he holds his hands onto his knees. 'I guess being in High School wasn't so bad after all.' He thought sarcastically. He takes a deep breath as he moves the willow branches to the side to let himself him. When he got inside he finds himself in the meadow. From the beautiful flowers to the few small waterfalls in the back, Sota sees his mom close in the back, but she's with someone. "Mom." Sota speaks gently as he walks up to her. "Oh Sota. I'm glad that you're okay." Ai hugs him. "Uh mom, who's that?" Sota asks as he looks at the man who is almost identical to him. "Sota, this is your father Hige." Ai pats him close enough. Sota can tell immediately that Hige is just a spirit. "Father…" Sota smiles up to him. Hige shows the same expression as he embraces his son.

When Hige embraced him, he felt that he wasn't gone at all, feeling such a bond that was indescribable. Ai just smiles at the two. Hige opens his eyes to silently tell her that he's got this. Ai agrees with him without saying anything and leaves the two alone. When she left, Hige and Sota take a seat on a rock, fitting them both. "So is there something you want to talk about?" Sota asks him first. Hige nod, "Yeah. First thing I'm sorry I have to send you to that high school. I couldn't risk you finding out about your sister's secret." Sota knew that already but he wanted to hear from his father's perception. "And for that 'no one is to know about another's status of life.' That was my idea as well. I just couldn't bear it to see if something was to slip and have enemies and allies to get the better of you." Hige looks down to his shaking hands. Sota catches the scene and places his own onto his father's hands like he's flesh and blood. "You were just doing the right thing for my sake. I had nothing against you at all. I just wanted to know more about my family, but that cannot be done due to what happened back there." He assures him, like a mother to a child.

When Ai returned to the castle, she first sees Kagome and Inuyasha talking among themselves. "Oh mom. I was worried about you." Kagome tells her first. Ai just smiles. "There's nothing for you to worry about. You should know by now that an amazing event is happening as we speak." She assures her daughter. "You mean…" Ai halts her before Kagome could continue on. "As I said, an amazing event is happening." She repeats herself hoping that Kagome understands what she's saying. Kagome can tell that she's happy about it. As such she smiles too, 'It's about time those two reminisce.' She thinks to herself.

Sota and Hige continue on what they went through over the years without each other for so long. "So that's why Kagome was cursed and not you." Hige speaks in relief. "You should be thankful that it didn't came down to you." Sota nods. "Yeah. I had no idea throughout this time, I have a sister. I was hoping it'd be the other way around though." Sota admits to his father. Hige tilts his head. "And why is that, my son?" He curiously asks. Sota takes a deep. "I thought that I'd be the older one, looking after her while you guys would leave. But I guess that wasn't meant to be." He looks down. Hige didn't see that coming. "I was hoping that happened but we cannot decide the fate of our children's gender when they're born." He wisely tells him gently as he places his hand onto Sota's shoulder.

As time went by, the sun begins to set. Hige smiles sadly. "It appears that I have to return to the afterlife." He stands up. Sota frowns at him. "Will I see you again, father?" Sota hopefully asks him. Hige smiles. "I can only come here when the moon is full. And since it's a first quarter of the moon, you have to wait till then." Hige instructs his son before disappearing in front of Sota. Knowing that there's nothing else to do here, Sota grabs a cloak to cover himself so that the villagers wouldn't recognize him while he's walking through town.

When Sota arrives back at the castle, he enters the front doors to hear commotion from the other side of the castle. From the sounds of it, it's coming from the dining room. He opens the door quickly to find that his family is about to start dinner. "Oh Sota. You came in just in time." Ai smiles as she sets down the last dish of dinner. Sota looks around the table to see his mother made his favorite dishes of roast beef, mashed potatoes and corn. "Mom, did you make all of this?" He asks as he takes all of this in. "It was your sister's idea to make your favorites." Ai answers him as she gestures to Kagome. Sota smiles, "Thanks Kagome. But how was it that you know about my favorite meals?" Sota asks as he takes a seat. Kagome smiles, "I was walking around the castle until I found your bedroom with your journal and to find one of the pages talking about your favorites. I'm sorry for snooping. I just thought that your first night as king that mom would make it for you." She explains to him.

From what she said to him, Sota didn't seem to mind Kagome reading his journal. Sota can see that Inuyasha is fidgeting to eat. "Let us begin." Sota announces them as they begin to eat. After biting each of his favorites, Sota couldn't help but smile in delight. "Thank you, mom. You have no idea how much I miss having this." Ai smiles proudly. "My pleasure, Sota. And welcome home. Here's to Sota's first night as King." Ai raised her wine glass. Kagome, Inuyasha and Sota raised theirs as well. "Cheers." Sota shouts in joy.

Later that night, Kagome is in her bedroom gathering her belongings. "What are you doing, Kagome?" Sota asks her as he enters the room. Kagome turns to him. "Nothing much. Just packing my stuff." She answers as she organizes her clothes. "You're leaving?" He asks her disappointedly. Kagome nods, "Yes. You see Sota, I used to live here, don't get me wrong. But I'm married and I'm pregnant as we speak, and so I have to live with Inuyasha." She explains to him. Sota nods to let her know he gets it. "But don't worry, I'll stop by every month so you can meet your niece or nephew." Kagome hugs him. Sota hugs back. Inuyasha comes in. "You ready to go, Kagome?" He asks as he closes the last suitcase. "Yeah." Kagome responds. Inuyasha takes the suitcase and puts it onto their carriage. "Kagome…" Ai comes up to her. "Don't go, sweetheart." She embraces her daughter. Kagome hugs back. "Mom, we all know this is the time I have to leave the nest." She gently lectures her. Ai nods. "I know. Even leaving the rest is just hard to me to deal." Inuyasha couldn't help but see such a sight. "We'll come and visit. Don't worry. She's in good hands." He offers his hand to Sota, which he gladly accepts and shakes his hand.

When Inuyasha helps Kagome get into the carriage, Inuyasha winks at the King. "You should come visit us when the baby is born." He advises Sota. "Will do." Sota agrees. Inuyasha gets in and closes the door behind him. The driver flicks the reigns to let the horses walk off. "Until we meet again." Sota whispers in the far distance.

A few months later, A scream is heard from Inuyasha's home. For such a thing, Inuyasha is demanded to remain outside of the room where Kagome is giving birth. Sango is helping her as Nurse Kaede is preparing to make it easier for her. "Just one more push, Kagome." Kagome takes a deep breath and screams from the top of her lungs.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha is walking back and forth outside of the room. "Honestly, how long is this going to take?" He asks irritated to Miroku who tries to calm him down. "Trust me, Inuyasha. I was in the same scenario as you were when Sango was in labor. All I had to do was to remain calm for Sango's sake. You should do the same." He tries to give his advice. "Says you. I have to stay out here, while she's in pain. I just can't stand it." He clutches his fists. That is until a baby's scream is heard. Inuyasha is about to go into the room, until it opens in front of you. "Oh no you don't. You are to stay put, until I give you permission to come in." Kaede warns him before closes the door in his face. Inuyasha could only growl at it. "See what I mean. This is the only time she's getting pregnant." He declares. Miroku shakes his head, knowing he doesn't really mean it.

All of a sudden the door opens to reveal Sango. "Inuyasha. You have a son." She tells him. Inuyasha smiles as he enters carefully so not to frighten the baby in Kagome's arms. He sits right by her side. Kagome looks up to his as she lies on his shoulder. Inuyasha wraps his arm around her. She unbundles the baby to see he has silver hair like his father. But the ears are black like Kagome's. When he opens his eyes they are soft chocolate brown like Kagome's set. But his facial is Inuyasha's. "What are we going to name him?" Kagome asks him. Inuyasha is thinking hard on this one. "Makoto." He speaks to his son. Kagome nods in agreement. "Makoto. Welcome to the family." She kisses his tiny forehead. Miroku and Sango smiles at the scene. "Do you think that Kimiko will be okay with the newest addition in the family?" Miroku asks her. Sango chuckles, "I know for sure they'll get along just fine." She replies back to him carefully. "Right now it's time to leave them alone." Kaede tells them as they all leave the house. Inuyasha smiles as he can tell that their friends left the building. "Finally, we are alone. You, Me and Makoto." He kisses Kagome head, "True." She nods as He picks up the infant and places him gently into their new crib that she got from Kagome's baby shower. "And right now, we sleep. I know for sure that you need a lot of rest after giving birth." Inuyasha picks her up and carries her o their bedroom. All Kagome does is fall asleep.

Inuyasha couldn't be any happier. After placing his wife onto the bed, he looks out the window to see the Moon shining down on him. 'Thank you for giving me this blessing. I don't know what I'd do without you, father.' He thinks up to the moon. But it wasn't his own father that he was praying to. It was Kagome's father that he was thankful for. 'You're welcome, my son.' Hige's voice replies back to him. But not just his. It was also Inuyasha's own father. "And someday we will meet again." He speaks this time. He turns around and goes to sleep with his wife. "Indeed we will." His father confirms it.

THE END

A/N I hope you enjoyed this story. I'll be writing a new story in the near future. Either it's a new one, or a sequel to this one. Only time will tell.


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